Beavers Pounce on Tigers Early for 53-32 Win
by The Scott County Record; by Rod Haxton-Editor on January 03, 2014
Launch the media gallery 1 playerIt was the first road trip of the season for the Scott Community High School boy’s basketball team, but it didn’t look that way.
The Beavers (3-1) looked right at home as they drilled three first quarter treys and rolled to a 25 point first half lead on their way to an easy 53-32 win at Ulysses (3-2) on Friday in the Great West Activities Conference.
“We played really well in the first half. Our defense was good and I felt we had Ulysses frustrated,” says head coach Glenn O’Neil. “I don’t know that they had any good shots in the half except for a three at the (halftime) buzzer.”
A three-point basket early in the game gave the Tigers a brief 3-2 lead, but after that it was all Scott City.
The scoring tandem of Trey O’Neil and Brett Meyer hit consecutive baskets followed by a three-pointer from sophomore guard Dylan Hutchins that opened up a 9-3 advantage.
O’Neil, who finished with a game high 26 points (3-of-9 3-pt. FG) and 10 rebounds, drilled back-to-back treys that stretched the lead to 15-6.
Scott City’s defense smothered the Tigers during an impressive 20-2 scoring stretch in which they opened up a huge 35-10 lead following O’Neil’s three-pointer at the 2:06 mark. Ulysses was held without a point for nearly seven minutes during that span.
A couple of officiating calls stalled Scott City’s momentum to close out the half.
A player technical foul, followed by another SCHS foul, allowed Ulysses to snap its scoring drought with four free throws. Then, with the Beavers running out the final 30 seconds of the clock for a final shot, O’Neil was called for a five-second violation on the perimeter.
“What’s frustrating is that the official who was standing right there wasn’t the one who made the call,” says Coach O’Neil. “It was made by an official who was out of the line of sight on the other side of the court.”
That turnover led to a Ulysses three-point basket just ahead of the buzzer to finish off a 7-0 scoring run.
“The five-second call was a big swing of momentum. Instead of us scoring two or three points it went the other way,” says O’Neil. “In the second half we didn’t shoot the ball all that well and the pace slowed down quite a bit.”
Ulysses was never closer than 16 points in the second half. An 8-0 scoring run by the Beavers that began late in the third period and carried into the fourth quarter gave the Beavers their largest lead of the night, 52-26, with 5:12 to play.
Meyer was the only other Beaver in double figures with 11 points (4-of-9 FG). He barely missed a double-double with nine rebounds and a team high three steals.
SCHS limited the Tigers to just 19 percent from two-point range (5-of-26). Coming into the game, the lowest shooting percentage by a Scott City opponent was 48 percent (Pueblo East).
“I thought our defense played better, even with our post players on the bench with foul trouble,” says Coach O’Neil.
Brayden Strine, who scored six points (3-of-4 FG) and Sloan Baker, who added four points and seven rebounds, each had four fouls.
Statistically, it was a mixed bag for the Beavers.
They committed just five turnovers, but they had just six assists.
“If we’d have finished off a couple of opportunities and made some shots that we should have made, the number of assists would have been higher,” notes O’Neil. “We need to be averaging between 12 and 15 assists per game.”
The Tigers committed just nine turnovers which was partially due to the lack of pressure defense by the Beavers.
”We wanted to do more half-court traps against Ulysses, but with our foul trouble we didn’t feel this was an opportune time,” adds the head coach.