For the first time in awhile, the Pine Bluffs Hornets basketball squad strung together a series of wins. On Friday, the Purple and Gold crossed over into Nebraska to knock off the Morrill Lions, 41-29 and in a bitterly fought contest Saturday, the Hornets won close one contest against district rivals, the Burns Broncs 37-34.
"We started kind of slow and they kept pace with us," said Hornets head coach Pat Walter.
Deadlocked at 12 at the end of the first quarter, Walter said he changed up the defense in the second stanza to great effect.
"They didn’t get many good looks against our zone and it allowed us to have good rebounding position so we held them to basically one shot attempt each trip for two quarters," he said.
By the end of the third quarter, the Hornets had out-scored the Lions 22-5. Riding their lead, the Hornets relaxed a bit in the fourth, allowing the Lions to get back into the game. Sensing a change in the tide, Walter once again rallied his troops and sent them back on the court with the defensive scheme that worked so well earlier.
"We switched defense back to a man-to-man and this put them out of sync enough to interrupt their run," said Walter adding, "I thought we did an excellent job down the stretch of taking care of the ball and running down the clock to limit their offensive opportunities."
In Friday’s game, senior Tanner Eastman led the Hornets swarm with 14 points while Ryan May was the game’s top rebounder with nine.
Saturday witnessed the Hornets going west, down Interstate 80 for a match up with Burns Broncs.
Opening the match, things looked pretty bleak for the hometown heroes who were shut out of the first quarter.
"Between turnovers, many of them unforced, and missed shots in close we never got any rhythm going offensively," said Walter.
Walter noted that the defensive play of his team who only allowed nine points to the Broncs in the first, gave the offense a chance to finally get back into things.
"In the second quarter we finally finished some of the looks we got and at least kept pace with Burns," Walter said.
Taking his team into the locker room down 10-19, Walter and team leadership rallied the Purple and Gold who came back in the second half and controlled the game’s tempo.
"I thought the boys did a great job of keeping their heads up and never stopped believing that they could come back to win," Walter said.
"We continued to chip away at the lead and late in the fourth quarter finally overtook them," he added.
Several times in the fourth, the lead changed hands and Walter credited the team’s good free throwing with the winning outcome.
With just four-seconds left on the clock, the Broncs had a shot at tying the game. The ball missed its mark and the Hornets headed back to Pine Bluffs, a victory in hand.
"It was nice to know that our kids can battle through struggles and win a hard fought game, especially in a rivalry game on the road," said Walter.
Eastman again led the Hornets offense with 11 points while May was again the top rebounder with four.
Up next for the Hornets, Friday will again see the squad on the road entering Nebraska to take on the Kimball Longhorns, jv action gets going at 4 p.m. with varsity tip-off at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the crew is back home to square off against the Lingle-Fort Laramie Doggers with jv hitting the court at 1 p.m. and the varsity boys take to the court at 2:30 p.m.
