The Bruin boys varsity basketball team split their last two road games, falling to Douglas and then followed that with a decisive win in Sutherlin Saturday afternoon. On Wednesday, head coach Brandon Hodges and his Bruin boys basketball team hosted the 2nd place, 6-1, South Umpqua Lancers riding a two game winning streak.
The first period of play both teams quickly established their offense with the Lancers pushing into the Bruins 2-3 defense and settling for mid-range jumpers around the basket as the Bruins forced the South Umpqua defense under their own basket and then drove into the paint. Junior forward Austin Dietrich, #33, was busy in the key fighting for inside baskets and Bruin second shot opportunities off the boards hitting for 7 of the Bruins 9 points in the period.
Starting the second period trailing the Lancers 9-13, the Bruins offense stumbled in the second period with bad passing and unforced turnovers, allowing South Umpqua to their 4 point lead to a 15-21 lead half way through the second period. The Bruin defense allowed five Lancers on the scoreboard in the second period as South Umpqua hit for 14 more points, while the Bruins struggled to keep up scoring 10 in the period to trail 19-27 at the half time break.
Not lacking effort in the first half of play and trailing by 8 points to start the second half, the Bruin boys shocked the Lancers applying a full court press to start the half, creating chaos in the South Umpqua backcourt. The press forced four consecutive Lancer turn overs that the Bruin offense took full advantage of closing the 8 point deficit in the first two minutes of the third period to tie the game at 27. Senior forward Kallen Christensen, #1, had 6 points in the period followed by another 5 points from Austin Dietrich, and 8 points from senior point guard Josh Serna after hitting two baskets and going 4 for 4 from the line.
The Bruins held the Lancers to just 9 points in the third period while putting up 19 points of their own to take a 38-36 lead into the final period of play, and the Bruins went right back to their stifling full court press as a reeling Lancer team continued to struggle to break the press.
South Umpqua could only find 6 points in the final period as the relentless press wore them down physically and mentally. Senior point guard Josh Serna put the team on his back in the fourth period and carried them across the finish line, scoring 14 of the Bruins 17 points in the period after getting to foul line an incredible 11 times in the period, hitting two baskets and going 10 for 11 from line to shock the Lancers 55-42, recording the Bruins second consecutive win.
The Bruins will host 1-7 Glide Friday evening, tipping off at 7:00pm at Bruin arena.
