Coach Hodges and his 6-3 BHHS varsity boys basketball team were on the road Friday night to play their final scheduled regular season game traveling to Myrtle Creek to take on the 3-6 South Umpqua Lancers in a game that could result in the Bruins finishing the season in sole possession of 2nd place in 3A-5 Far West League play.
The Bruins immediately dropped into their 2-3 defense and blocked off the paint, dominating the key early, controlling drives to the basket while denying second shot opportunities with defensive rebounding, holding the Lancers to just 7 points in the first 4:00 minutes of play. The Bruin offense ran often off of defensive rebounds, with Jake Beaman hitting four baskets in the period for 8 points, and Jaren Fronckowiak and Josh Serna adding 5 points to Brad Russell’s 8 points, and 21 Bruin points in the period.
With the Bruins leading 21-13 after the first period, the Lancers turned up the defense, disrupting passing lanes and challenging shots and holding the Bruins to just 14 points in the period. The Lancers took advantage of the aggressive Bruin defense in the paint, and drove to the basket, forcing the Bruins to foul, sending South Umpqua to the line seven times, outscoring the Bruins in the period 14-16, closing the Bruin lead to just 6 points going into the half-time break.
Coming out of the break, trailing by 6, the Lancers doubled Brad Russell down low with physical defense that resulted in Russell getting to the foul line 4 times in the period as he led all Bruin scorers in the period with 12 points in the third. But the Lancers, playing their final game of the 2022 season had four players on the scoreboard in the period, hitting for 16 points including two 3 pointers as the Bruins extended their lead to 7, taking a 52-45 lead into the final period.
Now trailing by 7, South Umpqua applied an aggressive full court press on the Bruin offense in a desperate attempt to slow Bruin scoring and create scoring opportunities for themselves. The strategy seemed to work early in the fourth as the Lancers closed the gap to 55-54 with 5:00 minutes in the quarter, but as time ran out, South Umpqua was forced to foul Bruin shooters to stop the clock and force the Bruins to hit their freethrows. The Bruins hit 11 of 18 from the line, sealing the 10 point 74-64 win to close the 2022 season.
The win put the Bruins in sole possession of 2nd place to end the season and send them into the 2022 post-season to begin next week.
