ORRVILLE — One night after scoring 101 points in an easy victory over to open area play, the Keith Bears demolished Maplesville 81-20 for a second area win to begin the week.

John Pettway, Afternee Simmons, Walton Young and Jaquan Simmons all scored in double figures for the Bears, who led 61-11 at the half and used the majority of the second half to play guys on the bench that do not see the floor as much as the starters.

“These are the kind of games that frighten me,” Keith head coach Tommy Tisdale said. “Not because of who we are playing but because of not having the hype. It is not a jampacked gym. It is an empty arena. The crowd is here or there but we have to be able to play night in and night out regardless to who is in the gym or who is watching us.”

Tisdale was proud of the way his team came out aggressive, never giving Maplesville a chance to get comfortable on the floor. The Bears jumped out to an 11-0 lead with 6:03 in the first quarter and led 29-6 at the end of the first. From there, the rout was on.

“They answered the bell early and they put the game away early,” Tisdale said. “A lot of the young guys got a chance to play again and we got a chance to work on some things we usually don’t get to work on in practice.”

Wins over Billinglsey and Maplesville also give the Bears the early lead in Class 1A, Area 5. Tisdale said area wins should never be undervalued.

“The one night you mess up and take that area loss you take a chance of the area tournament being somewhere else”, Tisdale said. “An area game is more important than Selma, Dallas County or Southside to me and I try to stress that every day with our kids.”

Tisdale knows winning the area won’t be an easy task. Maplesville is likely to improve considering it was the Red Devils first game of the season. Maplesville’s season just started because the Red Devils football team played for the state championship last weekend.

“They’ll be a lot better when we play them at their place in January and I know that,” Tisdale said. “Hopefully we will be prepared for it.”

Pettway scored 17 points to lead the Bears. Jaquan Simmons added 13 points and Anfernee Simmons had 12. Walton Young, the fourth Bear in double digits scoring, had 11 points. In all, eleven different Keith players scored in the game.

The Bears are now 8-1 on the season overall. Keith’s next game is at Southside Friday night.