Beavers win defensive showdown against Horns

SCHS senior Braeden Robinson scores a basket against Holcomb's Aaron Hernandez during Friday night's GWAC action.

By Rod Haxton, editor

As explosive as the Scott City boys are on offense, make no mistake about it, this teams takes a lot of pride in its defense.

Holcomb learned that lesson again on Friday as the Beavers throttled the Longhorns, 68-43, to win the Great Western Activities Conference championship.

Scott Community High School (17-1, 9-0) limited Holcomb to just 19 first half points and held them 12 points below their season average.

“We doubled down on our defense, especially in the second quarter, because we knew that would win the game for us,” says freshman guard Trey O’Neil.

The Beavers were trailing 16-19 following a three-point basket by the Longhorns early in the second period. That’s when the Beavers took control, closing out the half on a 17-2 scoring run that featured a pair of three-pointers from brothers Brett and Trey O’Neil. SCHS scored the final 10 points of the half.

What kind of a quarter was it for Holcomb?

The Longhorns held onto the ball for the final minute, playing for the last shot, only to have the Beavers get a steal and send a lob pass to junior guard Brett O’Neil who had an uncontested layup with just two seconds remaining.

“In the first quarter we didn’t communicate well on defense and that left them with some open shots,” noted B. O’Neil. “In the second quarter we had a hand in their faces and the shots were harder.”

In fact, Holcomb (13-6, 8-2) led throughout most of the first quarter before Joey Meyer’s basket tied the game at 14-14 entering the second period.

The Beavers owned a 35-22 lead early in the second half when Holcomb drilled back-to-back treys and added another basket that cut the deficit to 35-30 with 6:24 on the clock.

Junior guard/forward Tyler Hess, who finished with 10 points, connected on the second of his two treys at the top of the key to slow the Holcomb momentum.

“It wasn’t a career high, but it was one of my better games this year,” says Hess who has shown his versatility as a perimeter scorer in addition to giving the Beavers another strong rebounder in the paint.

“Coming off the screen, things felt good when I made the first (three-pointer) so it made it easier to think about shooting the second one.”

B. O’Neil, who finished with a game high 23 points followed with a patented reverse layin from along the baseline and the Beavers were back on top by 10 points. Shortly afterwards senior guard Braeden Robinson hit a basket and T. O’Neil added a tip in that rebuilt the lead to 12 points, 44-31.

That was part of a 14-2 SCHS scoring blitz that overlapped into the fourth quarter. With momentum on the side of the Beavers, Robinson buried a trey to open the final period and, reversing their typical roles, Drew Kite dished off an assist to B. O’Neil whose basket put Scott City on top, 56-33, with 6:28 remaining in the game.

Senior Jeremy Clinton came off the bench to hit a basket that gave the Beavers their largest lead of the night, 66-38.

The balanced SCHS attack included Meyer with 10 points while T. O’Neil and Kite each added eight.

While the win assured the team of their second consecutive GWAC championship, the Beavers kept it in perspective.

“This is one more goal accomplished,” adds B. O’Neil. “If we see them again it will probably be in the sub-state finals. We have to be prepared for the possibility of that happening and know it will be another tough game.”