Beavers defend home court against the Tigers, 64-45

SCHS junior Drew Kite hits a jumper for two of his 17 points against Ulysses during Tuesday's win in Great Western Activities Conference action.

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By Rod Haxton, editor

After blowout wins in their two previous outings, the Scott Community High School boys were prepared for a much tougher battle with Ulysses on Tuesday.

And the Tigers provided one . . . for 16 minutes.

Behind a stellar defensive effort, the Beavers limited Ulysses to just one field goal in the third period and blew open a close game for a 64-45 runaway before a Winter Homecoming crowd.

“Our nerves may have gotten to us in the first half,” says senior guard Braeden Robinson as his team held a 31-26 lead at the intermission. “But you always know you’re going to get a tough game from Ulysses. It was our teamwork and our defense in the third quarter that made the difference.”

The Tigers jumped out to an early 8-2 lead before SCHS began to find its offensive rhythm. The Beavers didn’t hit the panic button, but instead started pounding the ball inside to junior Drew Kite who finished with a game high 17 points, including three three-point plays in the first half.

Scott City put together a 12-3 scoring run during a 3-1/2 minute span in which Kite scored 10 points. The Beavers grabbed their first lead of the game when junior guard Brett O’Neil’s steal led to a basket by Tyler Hess that put SCHS on top, 10-9.

But the Homecoming crowd really came to its feet moments later when Ulysses had a breakaway layup and Kite came in from behind and jumped above the rim, hitting the ball off the backboard. The foul against Kite wasn’t a surprise. The intentional foul was.

“It was a hard foul, but it was definitely not an intentional foul,” says head coach Glenn O’Neil. “Drew was trying to pin the ball on the board. The official claims he came across the head pretty hard. You have two athletes playing up around the rim. There was going to be contact.”

Nonetheless, the home crowd was fired up and when Kite answered moments later with another three-point play that put the Beavers on top, 14-11, the fans roared their approval.

With Kite doing his damage in the paint in the first quarter, the Beavers were able to find success on the perimeter in the second period when they knocked down three of their four treys.

“We aren’t necessarily looking for the outside shot early in the game,” O’Neil says. “Our game plan is to go inside in the first couple of minutes to establish our post guys and to get some fouls on the other team’s big guys.

“Drew and Joey do a good job of posting up strong and our guards did a good job of getting them the ball where they could be successful. A key for us has been to pound the ball inside and get the high percentage shots.”

Looking to their perimeter game in the second quarter, junior guard Austin Habiger came off the bench to drill the first of his two treys. Following a trey from Ulysses, B. O’Neil answered with a three-pointer that put the Beavers back on top, 22-18. O’Neil quickly followed with a steal and was fouled while driving to the rim, converting both charity tosses.

Freshman guard Trey O’Neil added a three-point basket later in the half and a three-point play by Kite at the 1:52 mark put the Beavers on top, 31-22. Ulysses closed out the half with four unanswered points, making it a 31-26 game, but they would get no closer.

Defense Takes Control

The second half was a defensive clinic for Scott City - and an offensive nightmare for the Tigers.

SCHS opened the third period with a 10-0 scoring run - including 6-of-6 at the charity stripe - before Ulysses scored its only field goal of the quarter at the 4:06 mark. The Beavers followed with a 10-1 blitz that erased any hopes of a Ulysses win.

It wasn’t anything special that the Beavers did defensively in the third quarter. It was simply a matter of sound fundamentals.

“We sunk our hips and tried to keep the ball in front of us instead of double-teaming quite so much. And we were able to keep Ulysses from getting so deep into the lane,” O’Neil explains.

“As Coach (Brian) Gentry pointed out, it’s amazing when we keep the ball in front of us and still apply pressure how much better we are than when we allow a person to go around us and try to back-tap it.”

The team’s strong defensive play in the second half was in contrast to O’Neil’s disappointment in the defensive effort to start the game. The Beavers extended their pressure on the floor and, as a result, six of the Tigers’ first 10 points were from layups.

“We weren’t playing good defense. We didn’t move our feet and we didn’t have weak side help which allowed them to take it to the basket,” says the head coach.

Scott City’s biggest lead of the night came at the 5:09 mark of the fourth quarter when Braeden Robinson’s jumper opened up a 62-34 cushion.

“Coming off the Orange and Black we had things rolling,” Robinson says. “We’re finding our chemistry on the court and we’re continuing to get better as a team.”

Joining Kite in double figures were B. O’Neil and Meyer with 16 and 10 points, respectively. Kissell led the Tigers with 11 points, but had only a single basket in the second half.