By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
VINCENNES – Miracles never cease. And Bedford North Lawrence’s never missed.
With so much defensive attention spotlighting the sensational shooters, BNL forward Logan Miracle had room and desire in the interior. Every time the 6-4 junior touched it, something good happened. Divine intervention? Just designed intention.
Miracle scored a career-high 14 points, without missing a shot, as the Stars conquered South Knox 55-43 on Saturday night. Noah Godlevske had 17 points as BNL (7-2) stretched its winning streak to six straight.
BNL suffered some slippage, especially during a sloppy third quarter, when the Stars had more turnovers than points. That drop in performance was expected and explained after they exerted so much physical and emotional energy during the thrilling overtime win over Evansville Reitz only 24 hours earlier. What was unexpected was the Miracle production when BNL was struggling during the second half. He had big baskets to both steady the wobbling ship and create pull-away wind to get BNL moving in the right direction once again.
Six shots, six baskets. That’s efficiency and perfection.
“My teammates were able to get me the ball a lot more, and I was ready for it,” Miracle said. “It was understanding when they got me the ball, I would be able to do what I’m supposed to do.”
BNL started smoothly, with Godlevske ripping two treys and Miracle adding a 3-point play for a 14-8 lead. Godlevske continued his hot streak, busting two more bombs (with the last leaving his defender shaking his head in disbelief) as the margin expanded to 30-17. The Stars were in cruise control.
Then the engine sputtered. BNL’s only points in the third came from Miracle (converting a no-look pass from Trace Rynders and muscling home a rebound) and Isaiah Sasser (a sly and slick spin through the lane for a layup). That lull allowed the Spartans to creep within comeback range when Sam Singleton stepped back to stroke a trey that cut the margin to 38-32.
The Stars awoke before danger turned into emergency. Patric Matson elevated through the lane for a layup, then stroked a three from the key. Miracle added a soft hook in the paint and his second three-point play, and the lead was back to 14 for the final minutes.
“The kids really battled and we had it down to a two-possession game in the fourth quarter,” South Knox interim coach Jim Farris said. “We just had some unfortunate turnovers.”
Matson added 13 points as BNL remained perfect in the series with South Knox. While this one suffered a loss of style points because of the third-quarter mucking, it was still a quality road win.
“This was going to be a hard game,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “We had that big emotional win, then you came to South Knox, which is no slouch. It’s a tough place to play, they have a size advantage and they’re good at muddying things up. We didn’t have our legs and missed some shots.
“Happy that we won. If you can win and not give your best performance, that’s still a good thing. That’s six in a row, and nobody is going to be disappointed by that at all. The way we won wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.
“We had to do something to take advantage of different players, get them some different looks. We had some screening action for Logan to get him touches. When we were not playing smoothly or solidly, Sasser had a really good stretch.”
Singleton, a 6-7 force all over the court, paced the Spartans (4-8) with 16 points. He also did most of the defensive chasing on Godlevske, who cooled off in the second half. But the attention on the perimeter firepower created interior opportunities.
“It allows more paint touches and paint drives, because they’re so focused on the shooters,” Miracle said. “The winning streak is so fun. It’s been fun to show what we can really do.”
BNL will return to action on Friday, visiting Mitchell for the renewal of the county rivalry.
BEDFORD NL STARS (55)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
10 Patric Matson, f 3-5 4-10 2-2 3 13
31 Logan Miracle, f 0-0 6-6 2-2 1 2 14
11 Noah Godlevske, g 4-8 5-13 3-4 1 0 17
1 Trace Rynders, g 0-1 0-2 2-2 4 1 2
12 Maddox Ray, g 0-0 0-1 0-0 1 2 0
22 Isaiah Sasser 0-0 2-2 0-1 2 3 4
3 Quincy Pickett 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 1 3
40 Kline Woodward 0-1 0-3 0-0 2 2 0
5 Dax Short 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 2
20 Jonah Bailey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 8-16 18-36 11-13 17 11 55
SOUTH KNOX SPARTANS (43)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
2 Sam Singleton, f 2-6 6-11 2-2 6 3 16
45 Brady Robinson, f 0-1 3-8 0-2 7 3 6
30 Jayden McIntire, g 0-1 3-5 1-2 3 1 7
10 Justin Siewers, g 0-3 3-6 3-5 2 1 9
5 Kaiden Grumieaux, g 0-0 0-1 0-0 1 4 0
34 Isaac True 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 2 2
24 Elijah McIntire 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
3 Maverick Benjamin 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 3
4 Ace Hageman 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 3-13 17-34 6-12 23 14 43
Bedford NL 14 16 6 19 – 55
South Knox 8 9 10 16 – 43
Turnovers – BNL 15, South Knox 18
Field goal percentage – BNL 18-36 (.500); South Knox 17-34 (.500)
Free throw percentage – BNL 11-13 (.846); South Knox 6-12 (.500)
