-Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Carter Woodruff of Fort Dodge shoots around Des Moines East Jamal Taylor on Monday

The scores and record may not always indicate it, but head coach Willie Williams continues to see progress from his Fort Dodge boys basketball team.

On Monday night, those recent intangible improvements paid off in a big way.

The Dodgers put it all together in a 77-28 dismantling of Des Moines East, as Williams’s squad recorded the program’s largest margin of victory since a 101-51 win by Fort Dodge on Dec. 3, 1985 — 38 seasons ago.

“When you play hard and buy into sharing the ball for 32 solid minutes, good things happen,” Williams said. “The effort has been there. These guys love ball and love playing together. They get along and have fun with it. But what we hadn’t seen before (Monday) was the consistency we showed in our execution. We took high-percentage shots, and turned good looks into great ones.

“I’m really proud of them. I don’t want to say we were perfect — far from it — but I really like what I’ve been seeing lately. Win or lose, we’re making progress and I feel like we’re close to turning a corner. So it was nice to see it all (come to fruition against the Scarlets).”

Junior Drake Warland had 23 points and classmate Carter Woodruff added 19 for the Dodgers (3-11 overall). Both were varsity career highs. The duo combined to make 17 of their 24 shot attempts and four three-pointers in five tries.

Fort Dodge hit at a 58-percent clip as a team.

“Drake and Carter did a great job; they’ve both been taking big steps recently,” Williams said. “But really, everyone gave us productive minutes — all the way through the bench. They were feeding off each other. The energy was great. We really didn’t go through any lulls, and showed a lot of confidence.

“From Ty (Adams) being our only senior and setting the tone on down, I see what these guys do (behind closed doors). They work their butts off.”

Junior Cade Westerhoff also reached double figures with 11 points. Adams and sophomore Tytrell Mosley — the other two starters — added eight points each.

Williams also lauded FDSH’s defensive performance. East (2-11), which was coming off a 42-36 win over Des Moines Lincoln last Friday, made only 11 of 54 shot attempts from the floor (20 percent). The Scarlets turned the ball over 20 times.

“I thought defensively, we kept up the intensity and it led to a lot of easy transition baskets,” Williams said. “Again, that’s where it has to start: defense feeding our offense. And that comes from going hard non-stop.”

The Dodgers, who are now 3-3 in their six games since the Christmas break, return to action on Thursday against Perry. The contest’s location will be determined on Tuesday morning; the Bluejays haven’t played at home since the tragic school shooting on campus earlier this month.

FORT DODGE 77, DM EAST 28

Fort Dodge — Drake Warland 10-14 2-3 23, Carter Woodruff 7-10 2-2 19, Cade Westerhoff 4-9 3-4 11, Ty Adams 2-6 4-4 8, Tytrell Mosley 3-7 0-0 8, Kauner Jensen 2-2 0-0 4, Hayden Zuspann 0-1 2-2 2, Taevon Feeley 1-1 0-0 2, Gavin Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Carter Morris 0-0 0-0 0, Kian Sumpter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 29-50 13-15 77.

Des Moines East — Jamal Taylor 2-11 1-2 6, Craig Farley 2-6 0-0 5, Tayte Warren 2-5 0-0 4, Abel Mikele 2-14 0-0 4, Teaghan Warren 0-1 1-2 1, Bryant Nunez 2-7 1-2 5, Bryce Dix 1-6 0-0 3, Trevon Kelly 0-3 0-0 0, Isaiah Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 11-54 3-6 28.

Quarter scores: Fort Dodge led 21-6, 41-15, 58-22. Three-point goals: Fort Dodge 6-12 (Woodruff 3-3, Mosley 2-3, Warland 1-2, Adams 0-2, Westerhoff 0-1, Zuspann 0-1); East 3-22 (Taylor 1-3, Farley 1-3, Dix 1-4, Mikele 0-6, Nunez 0-3, Kelly 0-2, Warren 0-1). Turnovers: Fort Dodge 15, East 20. Total fouls: Fort Dodge 10, East 14.