Pine Bluffs’ Bryant Geouge, looks to sink the ball in Fridays game against Kimball.

The Pine Bluffs Hornets opened the 2012 portion of the basketball season with two losses, scoring an identical 33 points in each game. On Friday, they faced the Kimball Longhorns who put up 62 points against the hometown Hornets. The Lusk Tigers got their swipe in on Saturday at the Hornet’s Nest, outscoring Pine Bluffs 50-33.

“Friday night we faced a very athletic, physical team in the Kimball Longhorns,” said coach Pat Walter. “The fact that they had three games over Christmas break and we had none really showed up on the offensive side of things. We struggled shooting the ball from all areas of the floor. They had a very strong inside presence and finished well around the rim, with nearly half of their points coming from in the paint.”

Walter thought the Hornets did a good job of handling the Longhorns’ full court pressure but then let Kimball’s half-court defense push the Hornets away from what Pine Bluffs wanted to do.

“We had a lot of unforced turnovers in our half court sets,” Walter said. “This game will hopefully serve to show us how important defensive pressure can be in a game.”

JC Thurin was the Hornets’ top scorer with eight points.

Walter said Saturdays game was decided in one quarter. In the first canto, the Hornets led 12-10. Then the tide turned.

“We got outscored 28-7 in the second quarter,” he said. “Offensively, they allowed us to enter the ball to the post but we struggled getting movement going once the ball was entered. The way the match-ups were during the period I thought we would be best served to play a zone defense and take our chances with their perimeter shooting as opposed to giving up easy baskets inside. This was the wrong move to make as they proceeded to hit four three-point shots against our zone.”

Walter said the Hornets got disheartened by a couple of the early baskets and that compounded as Pine Bluffs’ offense became stagnant and their defensive intensity vanished.

“In the second half, we responded much better on the defensive end and only gave up two field goals the entire second half,” Walter said. “Unfortunately, we had put ourselves in too deep a hole to climb out and could never put together a sustained offensive run to get back in the game.”

Taylor Fornstrom made eight points on thegame for high scorer honors. He connected for two treys.

The Hornets head to Grover on Friday to face the Pawnee Coyotes. On Saturday, they will throw out the welcome mat for the Southeast Cyclones.