By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
HUNTINGBURG – On the left side of the faucet, the hot water spigot. On the right, the cold. They, like the country’s political climate, could not be more diametrically opposite. Somebody switched Bedford North Lawrence’s flow from one end of the offensive spectrum to the other.
Two performances could not have been more dissimilar. The Stars were steaming during their opening game of the Baird Classic, then more frigid than an Arctic winter in the encore. After an impressive win, BNL bottomed out during a head-spinning loss in the second game of pool play on Friday night.
BNL (2-5) settled for second in its three-team bracket, conquering South Ripley 56-48 in the first round before dropping a 43-31 decision to Southridge. With the three teams on BNL’s side splitting games, the Stars failed to earn a spot in the championship game because of the tiebreaker of points allowed. That moved the Stars into the third-place clash with Class A No.7 Orleans on Saturday night.
BNL 56, South Ripley 48 – In the opening game, the Stars dominated the second half with offensive excellence, solving South Ripley’s various zones with ball movement and efficient shots.
Dax Short did a lot of the damage with a career-high 23 points, finding room in the paint to work his post game or sliding into open gaps on the perimeter. He converted five straight shots during BNL’s surge to a comfortable working margin in the third quarter.
After the Raiders (6-3 and ranked No.10 in Class 2A) slipped in front on Eli Gilpin’s trey to start the second half, Short went off with an offensive rebound, two straight wing bombs, a drive through heavy traffic, and a spinning bucket on a shifty post move for a 42-34 advantage.
The Stars powered to their biggest lead at 46-36 as Dayson Kirby set up Ben Conner and Easton Moore for back-to-back layups. South Ripley drilled three treys to scramble within 50-45 midway through the final frame, but BNL spread its attack and generated layups by Moore and Conner to thwart the threat.
“What I’m most proud of is other guys stepping up,” BNL coach Jackson Ryan said. “Our guys off the bench were a huge spark with Parker (Kern) in foul trouble, with Gibson (Crane) in foul trouble in the first half. That was my favorite part.
“If we can get to that point, spread teams out and share the basketball, play our game and simplify it, that’s our recipe for success. That was a total team effort and really good for us.”
Conner didn’t miss a shot from the floor while totaling a career-high 11 points and Moore added 8 off the bench.
Mason Bascom buried three treys to score 11 off the bench for the Raiders. Derek Volz, the team scoring leader, was limited to 9. Blake Gunter, a problem inside during the first half, had 9 points, but he left with a right ankle injury with 2:45 left in the first half and was later transported to the hospital for more evaluation.
“He’s our one small chance at a little size,” South Ripley coach Seve Beach said. “He went down and made us smaller.
“They did a good job of keeping us out of the paint. Their physicality is different than what we see on a regular basis.”
BNL shot a blistering 56 percent (23 of 41) and owned a 23-20 rebounding edge. The Raiders were also guilty of 16 turnovers.
“You can only give teams so many extra shots before it turns into self-inflicted wounds,” Beach said. “We were in our own way the whole time. We were sloppy, just sluggish.”
Southridge 43, BNL 31 – Just a couple of hours after the electric start to the tournament, BNL went dark. The Stars shot a horrid 24 percent (11 of 46) against Southridge’s makeshift 3-2 zone, and that totaled included 7 of 32 from long range. It was the basketball definition of insanity. Keep trying something that didn’t work, with the outcome unchanged.
“The easy thing to do is blame it on us and shooting percentages,” Ryan said. “I’m not saying we took terrible shots. But the next step for us, in the flow of the game, is understanding basketball. Understanding we’re not making shots, so how do we adjust? How do we find ways to win? We didn’t do that.”
After Kern’s transition basket got BNL within 18-15 late in the second quarter, the Stars managed only one field goal until Driven Axsom’s trey with five seconds left in the third. The Raiders (4-3) rumbled away as Hudson Montgomery accounted for 10 straight points while powering Southridge to a 36-17 advantage.
Settling for jumpers on tired legs, BNL was only 4 of 24 from deep until the Axsom bomb. He made two more in the fourth quarter to finish with 9 points. But BNL’s usual scorers never heated up.
“That’s what we were hoping,” Southridge coach Ryan Haywood said. “We took our chances. High school kids aren’t great three shooters anyway, so we thought, if we caught them on an off night, if we could rebound, it would be a good strategy.”
Montgomery finished with 21 points while Camden Haywood added 10.
“Proud of our kids,” Haywood said. “After a disappointing loss, it would have been easy to pack it in and get our doors blown off by a good Bedford team. I don’t care what the record says, they’ve played a tough schedule. For our kids to pull together, I’m proud of them.”
Kern added 8 points for the Stars.
“Kudos to Coach Haywood,” Ryan said. “For them to play that zone, we did not adjust well. They forced our hand.”
In the other pool-play games, South Ripley stopped Southridge 57-49, Providence shut down Orleans 46-21 and conquered Class 2A No.12 Forest Park 53-37, while Orleans bounced back to clip Forest Park 48-46.
The pairings for the final round will include South Ripley against Forest Park (5-4) at 4 p.m., while the Stars and Bulldogs (6-2) will collide at 5:45. Southridge and Providence (6-3) will meet in the final at 7:30.
BEDFORD NL STARS (56)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
40 Ben Conner, f 0-0 4-4 3-4 4 1 11
24 Gibson Crane, f 0-0 1-2 0-2 2 2 2
5 Dax Short, g 3-4 9-17 2-2 6 0 23
1 Parker Kern, g 1-2 3-4 0-0 2 4 7
11 Jace Nicholson, g 1-2 1-3 0-0 1 0 3
10 Easton Moore 0-2 4-8 0-0 2 1 8
2 Driven Axsom 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 2 2
12 Dayson Kirby 0-1 0-1 0-0 3 2 0
Totals 5-11 23-41 5-8 23 12 56
SOUTH RIPLEY RAIDERS (48)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
33 Eli Gilpin, f 1-5 3-8 1-2 1 0 8
35 Blake Gunter, f 0-0 4-5 1-3 5 0 9
14 Dylan Jesse 2-4 2-4 0-0 3 2 6
3 Bryson Sipples, g 0-0 1-2 1-2 3 3 3
10 Drew Volz, g 2-4 3-9 1-2 3 1 9
12 Landon Werner 0-1 0-1 2-2 1 1 2
4 Mason Bascom 3-6 4-8 0-0 1 2 11
Totals 8-20 17-37 6-11 20 9 48
Bedford NL 13 12 17 14 – 56
South Ripley 11 13 12 12 – 48
Turnovers – BNL 13, South Ripley 16
Field goal percentage – BNL 23-41 (.561); South Ripley 17-37 (.459)
Free throw percentage – BNL 5-8 (.625); South Ripley 6-11 (.545)
BEDFORD NL STARS (31)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
40 Ben Conner, f 0-0 0-1 2-2 1 3 2
24 Gibson Crane, f 0-0 1-2 0-0 7 3 2
5 Dax Short, g 1-10 1-13 0-0 7 0 3
1 Parker Kern, g 2-11 3-12 0-0 3 1 8
11 Jace Nicholson, g 0-2 2-4 0-0 1 0 4
10 Easton Moore 1-3 1-4 0-0 1 1 3
2 Driven Axsom 3-6 3-6 0-0 0 2 9
12 Dayson Kirby 0-1 0-1 0-0 3 1 0
Totals 7-32 11-46 2-4 25 11 31
SOUTHRIDGE RAIDERS (43)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
33 Heath Steckler, f 0-0 1-3 3-4 6 3 5
23 Hudson Montgomery, f 3-8 8-14 2-2 7 1 21
2 Justin Leathers, f 0-1 2-4 0-0 5 2 4
14 Camden Haywood, g 2-4 3-8 2-2 5 0 10
4 Cooper Sherman, g 0-3 1-5 0-0 2 0 2
10 Parker Steckler 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
5 Sam Gasser 0-1 0-1 0-0 2 0 0
40 Jackson Buse 0-0 0-1 1-2 1 1 1
Totals 5-17 15-37 8-10 30 7 43
Bedford NL 10 5 5 11 – 31
Southridge 12 11 13 7 – 43
Turnovers – BNL 12, Southridge 13
Field goal percentage – BNL 11-46 (.239); Southridge 15-37 (.405)
Free throw percentage – BNL 2-4 (.500); Southridge 8-10 (.800)
