By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
SCOTTSBURG – Practice has made Bedford North Lawrence near perfect. Confidence is making the Stars quite lethal.
At this point last season, and for the entire year, BNL was emphatically proving it could not shoot. Mark Twain was attributed with the quote equating lies and statistics, but those numbers were not false. Now nothing could be further from the truth. The Stars have transformed from rim rattlers to swish sisters.
With its offense humming, with treys dropping like an Arctic thermometer reading, BNL shot down Scottsburg 61-34 on Friday night. Miley Sherrill headlined a balanced attack with 16 points as the Stars (3-0) completed an impressive sweep of their season-starting road swing. And for a few minutes, they were absolutely perfect.
BNL opened the second quarter by hitting five consecutive shots, while the Warriorettes (0-3) failed to launch one during a turnover-induced haze, and it doesn’t get better than that 13-0 run. That heat blast came after the Stars buried six 3-pointers in the first period. All the offensive fireworks set the tone for a 17-3 burst in the third to trigger a running clock en route to a mercy-rule triumph.
Explain this. Solve the mystery of why BNL shot so miserably last season, and most of the same personnel are now as deadly on their release as Billy the Kid with a pistol. Gym time, form fixes, hundreds of shots taken – all valid points. Whatever the reason, BNL singed Scottsburg by converting 24 of 45 attempts. After three games, all away from the familiar ground of BNL Fieldhouse, the Stars are shooting a crisp 50 percent overall.
“We’re getting good shots because they’re doing a good job of executing, and they’re sharing it really well,” BNL coach Chase Spreen said. Maybe it is that simple. “What we really pressed on them from a fundamental standpoint, if you want to be a good shooting team, you have to be a good passing team. It’s really showing in our execution. Shots are going in, and part of the reason is we’re delivering the basketball.”
BNL’s delivery was outstanding. The six bombs, including two from Sammie Nusbaum, powered BNL to a 20-9 lead in the first frame. The perfect start to the second included a Sherrill back cut to a layup, Jordan Blann’s dazzling behind-the-back move to shake a defender for a pull-up jumper, Trinidy Bailey’s trey, and Sherrill’s baseline pop. Bailey’s steal, off one of eight turnovers by the Warriorettes in the period, powered BNL to a 33-11 advantage, and the rout clouds were gathering.
The Stars finished it off in the second half. Sherrill dropped a hook in the lane, swished a trey in transition, and sliced the lane for a 15-footer. Paige Burton scored from the paint, and Caroline Sheldon gave BNL the mandatory 35-point lead to trigger the running clock with an uncontested drive for a layup late in the third quarter.
“They’re a confident group,” Spreen said. “They just have to understand, each night out, what it will take for us to accomplish what we want. The big point of emphasis on defense was pressuring them without giving any angles to the basket. Once we tightened up, we did a good job of stringing together stops. We were able to get some separation.”
Sherrill added a game-high 8 rebounds to her offensive work. Bailey and Nusbaum added 10 points each, and Blann totaled 9 points and 7 boards.
“You have to give them credit,” Scottsburg coach Carrie Daniels said. “They kept running the same things. If it’s not broke and it’s working, stick with it. They do an unbelievable job of being disciplined and fundamental. They look comfortable as a team, they look cohesive out there. They’re just playing basketball. They are really flowing.“
K.K. Grogan had 10 points and Addison Eldridge had 8 for Scottsburg, which started 0-3 for the first time in 11 years. Part of that can be attributed to over-ambitious scheduling. After facing two ranked Class 3A opponents, the Warriorettes ran into BNL. The growing pains for a team that lost last season’s star (Ellie Richardson, now at Western Carolina) are obvious.
“We’ve played some tremendously talented teams,” Daniels said. “It doesn’t do us any favors.”
The other surprise has been BNL’s perfect start on the road. What if someone would have predicted this? “I would have said you were lying,” Sherrill said with a laugh. “Every team we’ve played has not been easy, we can’t overlook anybody. We’ve really rallied around each other.“
“I’m thrilled,” Spreen said. “We’ve just been focusing on one game at a time, as cliche as that is. Whoever is in front of us, we know we have a job to do. They’ve done a good job, and it’s led to three wins. I can’t be happier with that.”
BNL will finally return home to host Mitchell on Saturday night. The Bluejackets (1-2) suffered a 62-18 loss at Perry Central on Friday night.
“It’s going to be a little different,” Spreen said. “I know we’re excited to play at home. It’s been a little off, because we’re well into the season, two weeks and three games, and we still haven’t played at home. There will be some extra juice there.”
BEDFORD NL STARS (61)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
23 Sammie Nusbaum, f 2-3 4-6 0-0 5 1 10
22 Miley Sherrill, f 2-3 7-12 0-0 8 0 16
32 Trinidy Bailey, g 2-6 3-9 2-2 3 3 10
21 Jordan Blann, g 1-3 4-7 0-0 7 0 9
11 Paige Burton, g 1-1 2-2 0-0 0 1 5
12 Elahdy Ray 1-3 2-4 0-0 2 0 5
24 Caroline Sheldon 0-0 2-2 0-0 0 1 4
31 Audrey Hoffman 0-0 0-1 1-2 3 0 1
20 Bella Warren 0-1 0-2 1-2 0 1 1
44 Annie Watson 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0
Totals 9-19 24-45 4-6 33 8 61
SCOTTSBURG WARRIORETTES (34)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
44 K.K. Grogan, f 1-3 4-10 1-2 5 1 10
22 Brooklyn Moon, f 0-0 1-1 0-0 3 1 2
25 Arya Stillions, f 0-1 1-8 0-0 0 0 3
14 Addison Eldridge, g 2-8 3-11 0-0 4 1 8
35 Addison Elliott, g 1-8 1-10 0-0 0 0 3
34 Georgia McNeely 1-1 3-3 0-0 0 1 7
23 Rylee Age 0-0 1-4 0-0 1 2 2
10 Sara Gaga 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 5-21 14-47 1-2 18 8 34
Bedford NL 20 17 17 7 – 61
Scottsburg 11 5 6 12 – 34
Turnovers – BNL 9, Scottsburg 12
Field goal percentage – BNL 24-45 (.533); Scottsburg 14-47 (.298)
Free throw percentage – BNL 4-6 (.667); Scottsburg 1-2 (.500)
