CASSOPOLIS — A second-quarter dunk from senior Darrion Gatson propelled a slow-starting Cassopolis basketball team to a 64-48 victory over Eau Claire in Southwest 10 Conference action Friday night.

Ranger coach Ricky Evans said it was one of the worst halves of basketball that his team has played all season.

“All you can say is it was an ugly game,” Evans said. “But we came through in the second half. For some reason, we didn’t have the energy that I thought we would have tonight.”

The Rangers opened the game with several steals, but failed to capitalize on 3-point opportunities until Gatson put one in with 2:59 remaining in the first quarter. Sophomore R.J. Drews, following Gatson’s lead, connected on a 3-pointer with three seconds left on the first-quarter clock to give the Rangers an 11-8 lead over the Beavers.

Everything changed in the first minute of the second quarter when Gatson dunked the ball after beating Eau Claire’s Davion Goins. The energy sparked the Rangers offense, which scored 10 points, but it did not take the Beavers out of the game.

Eau Claire trailed Cassopolis 20-17 at halftime.

“I just told them the shots were going to fall and just to keep working hard,” Evans said.

The third quarter started on a high note as Drews canned a three in the first minute of the second half.

“As a sophomore, we expect a lot out of him,” Evans said. “He’s a good shooter.”

A second dunk from Gatson was followed by a steal by Hart, who passed to Drews for an easy layup.

Gatson, who was struggling to hit his outside shots in the first quarter, had little trouble hitting them for the rest of the game and even played in the post for Cassopolis.

Evans said he would never stop his team from taking shots from outside the 3-point, but also encouraged his team to penetrate Eau Claire’s zone defense when it could.

“Eau Claire is a scrappy team, and they are going to work for everything they got, but I think the two dunks that Darrion had just took the sails out of them,” Evans said.

In the fourth quarter, as both teams got into foul trouble early on, Evans backed off his team’s man-to-man pressure and full-court press to start playing a zone defense, the same as Eau Claire.

Evans said individual foul trouble is something he normally does not worry about. Instead, he encourages whoever comes off the bench to perform better than the person they are replacing.

Looking ahead, Evans said the team would work on its defense, man-to-man pressure, and keeping consistent energy, as well as practice their shooting.