NEW PARIS — Preble Shawnee junior Mason Shrout became the Arrows all-team leading scorer this past weekend as the Arrows picked up wins over National Trail and Stivers.
Shrout scored 25 points in a Friday, Dec. 16 win (79-23) over the host Blazers to surpass Ryan Hudson as the top scorer in program history. Hudson set his mark while wearing a Shawnee uniform from 1987-90.
The next night, Shrout scored 34 points in the Arrows 73-51 win over visiting Stivers.
“He’s a special, special big-time player,” Shawnee coach Jake Turner said. “He deserves every bit of this. He’s worked his tail off from day one. And he’s just continued to put in work, and he’s got a bright future. There’s a reason he’s getting a lot of attention. He deserves it. He gets a lot thrown at him from everywhere and he’s handled it well.”
Turner has coached Shrout the past two seasons.
“He’s grown up a whole lot in two years, and he’s going to continue to grow up and mature” Turner said. “And he’s a heck of a player. But just a very special, awesome moment. I’m so proud for him. I haven’t seen a lot of players that’s played in the past, so I don’t want to say this the wrong way and make some people upset but he’s got to be the best player that’s ever came through. But if there’s a better player than him, holly smokes.”
Turner said there is more to Shrout’s game than just scoring.
“He’s a team player too. He gets his teammates involved, he just flat out a heck of a player,” he said.
The Arrows made quick work of Trail jumping out to a 30-10 lead after the first quarter forcing seven Blazes turnovers.
“Right now we’re preaching defense. We preach getting after it, competing and guys are buying into it. That’s what’s going to separate some playing time,” Turner said. “I feel like the nine guys that are in our rotation right now are ahead of some other guys, but they’re just buying into what we’re preaching and they’re just flat out getting after it. And that’s what we want to do. We want to get after it, we want to make teams uncomfortable. We want to make it tough on teams to score, and I think our guys are just flat out competing right now.”
Shrout finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals. Isaac Blankenship added 10 points and five assists.
Logan Hawley contributed nine points and seven rebounds and Cooper Roell chipped in with nine points and three assists.
Shawnee extended its lead to 48-18 by halftime and led 64-21 after three quarters.
Kellen Laird led the Blazers with 12 points, six redounds and three assists.
Logan Smith added 10 points and six rebounds.
