CLARION – Marty McKinney prefers his teams play man-to-man defense, he always has and he probably always will.

But he’s not so stuck in his ways that he refuses to budge. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows probably wishes he was a curmudgeon.

After giving up 17 first-quarter points to the Cowboys, North Central Conference-leading Webster City switched to an aggressive zone defense that eventually sapped the fight out of CGD Friday night.

Trailing by one at the half, the Lynx swarmed the ball relentlessly in the second half and outscored the Cowboys 39-14 to roll to a 24-point victory, 64-40.

The points came in bunches over the final 16 minutes, beginning with a 13-0 spurt over the initial 4:45 of the third quarter. But it all started at the defensive end; jumping in passing lanes, denying shooters and picking off passes.

“We’ve got to be a defense-oriented team,” McKinney, the Lynx head coach, said. “In the first quarter they did pretty much whatever they wanted to against the man-to-man. But then we went into the zone and trapped and just got more aggressive with it. With that defense, it’s a little more risk-reward than I prefer, but you’ve got to trust your guys are going to get there on the backside and get the basket covered.”

WCHS (11-1, 8-0 NCC) piled up 13 steals, led by Avery Fuhs with five and Conner Foster with three. Fuhs also led all scorers with 18 points, 10 of them coming in the first half.

Colt Richardson ignited the third-quarter flurry with a steal and short jumper on the opening possession and he scored six of his 14 points during the 13-point run that put WCHS in front 38-26 midway through the period.

“Colt got in foul trouble and didn’t play very many minutes in the first half, but he came out right away in the third quarter and set the tone for what we were trying to do,” McKinney said.

Landon Daniels helped out as well with a 3-pointer from the left corner early in the third. He hit a pair of triples and finished with eight points.

Sitting on just two points after three quarters, Alec Fuhs helped put CGD (6-9, 2-7 NCC) away with nine fourth-quarter points. He hit 3’s from the top of the key and wing to extend the lead to 18 by the 5:40 mark and later added an old-fashioned three-point play to give WCHS a 59-39 edge with 2 minutes remaining.

Conner Shannon provided the icing – a trey from the corner at the buzzer.

The Fuhs twins combined to dish out 10 of the Lynx 15 assists. Shannon chipped in five points and Brandon Ausenhus added four more.

Sam Urness and Will Weidemann both scored 11 points for the Cowboys.