Slight irritation — hands on hips with a head tilt or hands on head.

Moderate irritation — sitting, head down and a shake of the head.

Higher than average irritation — here’s where the voice begins to rise.

Explosive irritation — You better get out the earplugs because it’s about to get loud.

Freshman Ty McKinney takes the ball strong to the basket for two of his seven points in Webster City’s 75-36 win over Manson-Northwest Webster Tuesday night in Manson. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“Oh yeah, we can tell when we’ve pushed him too far,” WCHS senior guard Carter Neuroth said as he chuckled following the Lynx 75-36 pasting of Manson-Northwest Webster Tuesday night. “He gets a red face or he’ll look away from us, and you can really tell when he starts to yell.”

McKinney reached his boiling point with 3:18 remaining in the first quarter on Tuesday. WCHS led 9-8, but it wasn’t defending. At all. And during a timeout, he gave his players an earful.

The entire gymnasium was in on the tongue lashing, too.

But it was message received, as McKinney’s words lit a fire under his players, who finished the quarter on an 11-4 spurt and never looked back.

“This group has a lot of talent, but sometimes they like to do it their own way,” a calmer McKinney said following the game. “For whatever reason we just went through the motions early at the defensive end, but the guys eventually bought in. Once we took away what they wanted to do inside, that’s when we took control.”

WCHS guard Carter Neuroth (22) scores in transition on Tuesday. He poured in a game-high 20 points against Manson-Northwest Webster. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Scoring hasn’t been an issue for WCHS (6-2) this season and that continued to be the case against the Cougars. But defensively, that’s where the Lynx have to improve, a message McKinney hopes his players are starting to believe.

“We can score points, but as we found out (in a 73-64 loss to Iowa Falls-Alden) on Friday, shootouts aren’t going to work out for us against good teams,” McKinney said. “So we’ve got to defend better.”

WCHS held Manson-Northwest Webster to 24 points over the final three quarters, including 13 in the second half. The lopsided score eventually led to a continuous clock in the fourth period.

Not only did the Cougars find it tough sledding at the offensive end, they found it nearly impossible to slow down Neuroth, who went off for a game-high 20 points to go along with four assists and three steals. Neuroth shredded the Cougars’ zone defense by attacking the basket and either scoring at the rim or whipping passes to open teammates for outside shots.

Neuroth scored six first-quarter points, had 14 at the half and continued to eviscerate the defense after the break.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“In the zone particularly I felt like they couldn’t guard me that well,” Neuroth said. “I felt like I could take it to them.”

McKinney liked what he saw from his point guard.

“He was very good,” McKinney said of Neuroth. “He was in his element with running the floor, attacking off the dribble, finding open men and finishing. I thought he passed the ball as well as he scored.”

Drake Doering (12 points) and Tavis Eklund (10 points) also reached double figures for the Lynx. Will Tasler provided eight points inside, while Ty McKinney and Tyler Olson added seven points each.

Olson also registered six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Eklund yanked down five boards.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

In his third game with the varsity, Jamin Stuhr scored four first-half points. But the sophomore forward sprained his ankle on a bucket in the paint when he came down on the foot of Manson-Northwest Webster’s Austin Anliker. Stuhr sat in the stands with an ice pack strapped to his ankle in the second half and his availability for tonight’s game against Humboldt is in question.

Anliker scored eight points and Trinity Johnson had seven for Manson-Northwest Webster (1-10).

Web City 75, Manson-NW Web 36

Tuesday at Manson

Webster City (6-2) — Ty McKinney 3 1-1 7, Drake Doering 4 2-2 12, Trey Lyons 1 0-0 3, Tavis Eklund 4 0-0 10, Tyler Olson 2 3-4 7, Carter Neuroth 9 1-2 20, Elijah Killian 0 2-3 2, Lincoln LaSourd 1 0-0 2, Jamin Stuhr 1 2-2 4, Casey Kolbeck 0 0-0 0, Will Tasler 4 0-3 8. Totals: 29 11-17 75.

Manson-NW Webster (1-10) — Carson Bower 1 0-0 3, Kadin Birkey 1 0-0 2, Austin Anliker 4 0-2 8, Trinity Johnson 2 3-5 7, Tate Bianchi 0 0-0 0, Dayton Snell 2 0-2 4, Shawn Kenyon 0 0-0 0, Brody Poppen 1 0-0 2, Quinn Trice 0 0-0 0, Bryce Miller 0 0-0 0, Sean Peters 4 0-0 8, Tommy Lawman 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 3-9 36.

Web City 20 23 18 14 — 75

Man-NWW 12 11 6 7 — 36

3-point field goals — WC 6 (Doering 2, Eklund 2, Neuroth, Lyons); MAN 1 (Bower). Rebounds — WC 29 (Olson 6, Eklund 5). Steals — WC 13 (Olson 4, Neuroth 3). Assists — WC 13 (Olson 6, Neuroth 4). Turnovers — WC 7. Team fouls — WC 9, MAN 17. Fouled out — none.