MORAN — Dan Uhlrich isn’t one to mince words.
“At the beginning of the year, we were a bad basketball team,” he said Monday.
But as the calendar races toward spring, the proverbial switch has flipped, and just in time for the Wildcats.
Marmaton Valley, which entered Class 1A-I substate play with three wins on the season, picked up its fourth in most convincing fashion.
An early 11-0 run put the Wildcats in front of visiting Pleasanton, and they never looked back in a 46-36 victory.
The win pushes Marmaton Valley into the substate semifinals where they will host top-seeded Flinthills at 6 p.m. Thursday.
While technically the road team, the Wildcats are the host school for the substate tournament.
The winner advances to Saturday’s championship game at 7:30 against either St. Paul or Southern Coffey. The winner advances to the state tournament.
Perhaps no single player better epitomizes Marmaton Valley’s ascension than Justice Pugh, who did much of the heavy lifting offensively with 20 points.
The sophomore guard scored on a steal and layup to give the Wildcats a 6-5 lead — an advantage they didn’t relinquish the rest of the night.
He was only getting started. His layup was followed by a 3-pointer, another layup and a short jumper, part of a personal 9-0 run to give the Wildcats a 13-5 lead.
“Coach talked to me a couple of weeks ago, about knowing when to pull it out and when to take it in hard,” Pugh said.
He did just that, repeatedly, helping slice and dice Pleasanton’s zone.
Pugh’s 3-pointer late in the half re-established an 11-point Wildcat lead. He added another jumper in the final minute of the quarter before Gage Adams — who also found his shooting range early — hit a turnaround jumper at the halftime buzzer to send Marmaton Valley into halftime with a 28-15 advantage.
The lead grew to 15 after the break before Pleasanton turned up the defensive intensity and began to chip away at the lead.
The Blu-Jays’ Brenton Laver scored six straight points, forcing a pair of Marmaton Valley timeouts, to pull Pleasanton within 33-25.
