Turnovers more than tall Indians scalp Bucs

By Bob Kopp

BDR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Hononegah came to town and took away a 54-49 victory that the Bucs could have won convincingly if the rock weren’t handled like a piece of lava.

With brilliant offensive and defensive schemes developed by Head Coach Aaron Pearson and top assistant Nate Lister overcoming the overwhelming height advantage of the Indians and holding a 26-23 halftime advantage and knotting the score 46-46 at 3:17 in the fourth quarter on two nothing-but-net foul shots by senior Joey Hernandez who went 7-8 from the charity stripe for his evening’s total, a plethora of turnovers from the point that required a computer for tabulation was the difference in a game that was intense and physical but clean and well-officiated as well as being a harbinger of better days for the Bucs that are soooooooo close to joining the elite in the highly competitive NIC-10.

The 6’8″ senior Max Miller who plays every inch of his height and could be the most fundamentally sound center in the conference led all scorers with 26 points; including 13-14 from the foul line and a three-pointer early in the second half that ignited countless lead changes precipitated mostly by the Bucs’ consistent ball-handling inconsistency that kept the Indians in the game and ultimately enabled their win.

Despite Hononegah’s tall and deep rotation featuring Miller, 6’3,” junior Kameron Kolberg, 6’3,” senior Josh Donaldson, 6’1,” sophomore Caleb Donaldson, 6’6,” senior Spencer Murdoch, 6’2,” senior Jackson Doyle, and 6’2″ senior Mitchell Massino – Get the picture! – The Bucs consistently out-rebounded and out-hustled the visitors at both ends of the court.

It bears repeating this game was lost on turnovers as the Bucs were more than equal to every challenge presented by pre-season favorite Hononegah.

It also means there’s no mystery as to how the Bucs can turn the early season around as they look to another championship run in the post-season.

Senior Will Morris led the Bucs with 19 points followed by senior Austin Revolinski (10), rebounding vacuum senior 6’1″ Xavier Dent (six), senior Nate Horton (three), senior Jacob Rodriguez (two), and junior Phil Kolk (two).

The Bucs traveled to Harlem and blue-chipper 6’5″ senior Allen White III, a top scorer and rebounder in the NIC-10, on Friday, Dec. 9.

Varsity action started 20 minutes after the completion of the sophomore game tipping-off at 5 p.m.

Results for that game will be in an upcoming publication.