After a win in Douglas Tuesday night, a confident Bruins boys basketball stepped on the floor against a Sutherlin team that featured size with eight players over 6 foot. The Bulldogs came into town with a win of their own Tuesday night crushing Cascade Christian by 21 points.
The Bruins and Bulldogs played in streaks throughout the game both defensively and offensively. With the Bruins missing #2 senior guard Austin Fronckowiak to a serious ankle injury, the Bruins missed both his floor leadership and his scoring.
The game quickly broke down into a defensive battle as the Bulldogs made the game physical, clogging lanes with their size and knocking Bruin players off their spots consistently taking the Bruins out of their offense.
In the first quarter senior guard #32 Brig Schofield and sophomore Logan Holler both hit 3’s accounting for 6 of the Bruins 10 points in the quarter. But the Bulldogs had three players on the scoreboard in the period and outscored the Bruins 10-11 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter again it was Logan Holler who led Bruin scoring hitting for 5 points from two layups and earning a trip to the line for daring to drive the lane. Schofield hit another 3 and junior center Jason Vanginderen #10 fought in the paint to his 2 points in the period sending both teams to the locker room tied at 20-20.
In the second half, it was clear that the Bulldogs were concerned about Bruin sophomore center Derek Bonde #42 who went off for 18 points against Douglas Tuesday night. The Bulldogs put their 6′-7″ senior center #32 JR Bailey on Bonde, who used his size to knock Bonde off his spot and not allow him inside to rebound or see an open shot at the basket.
At the midway point of the fourth quarter, the score was tied at 35-35 as both teams maneuvered to finish the contest on their own terms. The usual suspects stepped it up in the waning moments, senior forward Luke Beaman #0 drove inside and got to the line for his 3 points in the quarter. Senior guard #3 Eli Mills hit a 3, sophomore center Derek Bonde came up with a steal and drove the length of the court to get 2 of his 4 points in the game and Brig Schofield drove into the paint to get to the line.
But the game came down to the final shot with the Bruins trailing by 1. After a final time-out by Coach Gonzeles to set the play, it broke down to a challenged outside shot that rimmed out as the buzzer ended the game 38-39 Bulldogs.
The Bruins will be at home next Tuesday again at 6:00 pm as the now 2-0 St. Mary’s Crusaders travel to Bruins Arena.
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