After watching a fourth-quarter lead slip away against Dexter Friday, New Madrid County Central picked up a much-needed district win Tuesday night against visiting Malden. A dominant start put the Eagles ahead by 18 points at the end of the first quarter before NMCC (7-7) rolled to a 66-25 final. “Malden is down, but in this class, it doesn’t matter if you’re down,” NMCC head coach Lennies McFerren said. “Everybody wants to get a win, and after the games, we’ve lost this year we needed a game where we didn’t have to worry about the win. “I think the guys came out early and let it be known they were going to be all out. They didn’t look at who we were playing. They were just going out there and playing as hard as they could.” Everything went the Eagles way in that fateful first quarter, hitting four of their six shot of the game and forcing nine Green Wave turnovers. NMCC’s defense allowed only two Malden (1-15) shot attempts in the frame with the Green Wave unable to connect on either. After opening the game one a 10-0 run the Eagles closed out the quarter, scoring another 10 unanswered points to go into the second frame with a 20-1 lead. Malden was able to slow the bleeding in the final eight minutes of the half, but still trailed 36-14 going into the locker room at the half. At the half, NMCC was leading the turnover battle 15-6 while shooting 12 of 24 from the floor. “We came out and got punched in the mouth early,” Green Wave head coach Cole McBroom said. “They hit four threes in the first quarter and the last couple games they hadn’t been shooting well. They came out, punched us in the mouth, and we rolled over. “We decided they were going to beat us tonight. Whenever you do that against a McFerren coached team, they’ll make you pay for it, and they did tonight.” NMCC came out after the half and continued their march toward a turbo clock. A 9-1 run in the third quarter gave them their first 30-point lead of the night when Johnnie Walker connected on a shot with 2:40 left in the frame. After taking a 32-point lead into the fourth, the Eagles scored the final 12 points of the game to keep the clock rolling for most of the final eight minutes. Despite only connecting once from 3-point range following halftime the Eagles had a good night behind the arc, finishing with seven. Ansel Underwood hit a team-high three 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 15 points. Walker had a pair of threes on his way to 13 points, and Donnie Ray Brown was the third Eagle, scoring in double-digits with 10 points. “They can shoot,” McFerren said of his team. “By me being a new coach, I think they’ve been trying to please me so much that they’ve forgot about what they could do. They had an opportunity tonight, and the ball went in. “From the beginning, they were ready to play. I just hope this carries over to the next game on Friday against Portageville.” Malden 1 13 8 3 – 25 NMCC 20 16 18 12 – 66 MALDEN (25) – Dominique Townsend 4, Lamar Smith 9, Tye Miller 7, Sientez Lerma 3, Lonnie Hamilton 2. FG 8, FT 5-9, 12. (3-pointers: Smith 3, Miller 1. Fouled out: none.) NMCC (66) – Johnnie Walker 13, Christen Phillips 7, Bryshawn Williams 2, Ansel Underwood 15, Kevon Williams 9, Tre’ Sims 2, Keaston Phillips 6, Kylan Minner 2, Donnie Ray Brown 10. FG 25, FT 9-16, F 15. (3-pointers: Walker 2, Phillips 2, Underwood 3. Fouled out: none.)