The BHHS varsity boys basketball team took their show on the road this week traveling to the home of the 7-8 North Bend Bulldogs. The Bulldogs have put a roster together that has only one of its twelve players standing under 6 foot tall.
The Bulldogs are playing well this year and are certainly not intimidated by any team walking onto their floor. They came out strong in the first period and immediately went on a 5-0 run against the Bruins 2-3 soft press defense. Clearly, the Bruins defense wanted to slow the Bulldogs down without getting beat over the top with fast breaks and easy baskets as they picked up the Bulldog offense early in their half and forced them to work the ball up the court.
Junior guard Austin Fronckowiak #2 kept the Bruins in the first quarter with 5 points off a 3 pointer from the outside and a 2point basket in the lane. Junior forward Luke Beaman #11 got to the freethrow line twice in the quarter hitting 2 of his four shots and junior center Jon Kleespies put 2 points on the board from under the hoop as the Bruins put 9 points on the board in the first period to North Bend’s 15 led by Jayden Frank’s 9 points.
The height of the Bulldogs was clearly bothering the Bruins both inside and outside the key as they pushed Kleespies out of the paint, denying him the position and challenged every outside shot. The Bruins outside shooters were not allowed to get an open look at the basket and were called for fouls as the Bulldogs smothered the shooters with very physical defense if they tried to drive inside. Again, the outside shooting of senior guard Gabe Barneburg #24 who established his 3 point shooting prowess in the preseason was sorely missed as the Bruins could not hit consistantly from the outside to open up an inside attack.
Luke Beaman broke out offensively in the second period hitting for 9 points including a three-pointer as the Bruins could only get three shooters in the books in the second period. Austin Fronckowiak hit a bucket and junior guard Eli Mills #3 got to the freethrow line and hit one of two. The Bulldogs put 24 points on the board behind Jayden Frank again as he added another 9 points to his total. North Bend took a 39-24 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Bulldog defense was even stingier in the third period as only 2 Bruins could get on the scoreboard. Again Luke Beaman hit a bucket and got to the line hitting 4 of 5 attempts. Junior guard Brig Schofield #1 got in the scoring column when he hit a 3 pointer from the top of the key. The Bulldogs added 15 more points to their total 54 points at the end of the period as the Bruins had no answer and could not contain North Bend’s Jayden Frank who added 7 more points to his total in the third period.
In the fourth period Eli Mills hit a 3 pointer and mid-range jumper for 5 points, center Jon Kleespies hit 2 buckets in the paint and senior forward Jake Christensen got in the scorer’s book with a basket late in the period. When asked for a few words about the loss from Coach Gonzales, he responded by saying “North Bend played very well tonight. Jaden Frank is a good player. Easily the best player in our league right now and might be the best player to come out of the Far West League in 10+ years. To play with these guys tonight we had to limit turn over’s and empty possessions… and we were far from that. We’ll get better. There is a lot of basketball left to play.”
The Bulldogs Jayden Frank went for 28 points in the game leading all scorers with 8 baskets and four 3 pointers on the night.
As for the Bruins, Junior guard Luke Beaman went for 20 points on the night leading all Bruin scorers with five baskets and, one 3 pointer while going 7 of 12 from the freethrow line. Junior guard Austin Fronckowiak #2 had 7 points on the night as junior guard Eli Mills and junior center Jon Kleespies each hit for 6 points in the 68-44 Bruin loss.
The Bruins will be on the road for their next game as they travel to match up against 4-12 South Umpqua next Tuesday.
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