by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
WAVERLY — While Logan Elm executed its game plan early, a few unforced errors in the second quarter helped give Bishop Ready the edge it needed to post a 50-38 win over the Braves.
The teams played to a 15-15 tie in the first quarter of Thursday’s holiday tournament in Waverly.
Logan Elm ran 90 seconds off the clock to start the second quarter and Tanner Holbert sunk a three to put LE up. A three-point play from Konnor Starkey a minute later had the Braves leading 21-15.
While the Braves were trying to keep the pace of the game slowed down against the bigger Silver Knights, six turnovers in the period led to Bishop Ready scoring nine straight points and leading 24-22 at the half.
Two early LE turnovers in the third quarter led to buckets for Kaleb Schaffer and a 28-22 Ready lead.
“I thought we had a great start and played with a lot of confidence. We competed defensively,” LE coach Doug Stiverson said. “They have a lot of weapons and I thought we did a really good job, but we just had those little spurts in the game and when you play a really good team a few of those turnovers lead to easy baskets for them as well.
“We have to do a better job as a group of taking care of the basketball.”
After those two early turnovers, LE had only three more in the final 14 minutes as the Braves were able to keep the game within striking distance. The difference was just four points after a pair of Holbert free throws with 1:37 left but four free throws from Schaffer and a bucket from Charlie Russell gave the Silver Knights their 10-point win.
With only one player on the Bishop Ready roster listed under six feet, the Knights’ size gave LE problems.
“Most of all, their length hurt us on the perimeter,” Stiverson said. “Sometime you’re not used to that, you don’t practice against that every day”
Schaffer (6-5) came through big for the Silver Knights in the second half, scoring 16 of his 18 points in the last two frames. He also led his team with six rebounds. Luke Ruth (6-2) kicked in 11 points while Charlie Russell (6-5) had nine and Troy Hixson (6-1) had eight.
Holbert led LE putting in 18 points, as well. Braylen Baker had nine and Starkey had eight.
LE finished with an 18-16 rebounding edge led by Holbert with five and Garret Summers with four.
After four games in the last two weeks, the Braves will have a few days to recharge before heading to Bloom-Carroll next Friday.
“We definitely need a little break here. We had two games last week, two games this week, so we really haven’t been able to make a whole lot of adjustments here in the last couple of weeks,” Stiverson said. “I think it’s going to be really good for our kids to have those four days before our next game.
“We’ll take what we learned in the last four games and make some adjustments.”
Bishop Ready 60, Logan Elm 38
Bishop Ready— Luke Ruth 4-1-10, Charlie Russell 4-0-9, Troy Hixson 3-0-8, Austin Burgoon 2-1-5, Kaleb Schaffer 6-5-18. Three-point goals — Ruth, Russell, Hixson (2), Schaffer. Total — 19-47 7-8 50.
Logan Elm — Konnor Starkey 2-4-8, Braylen Baker 4-0-9, Garret Summers 1-0-3, Tanner Holbert 4-7-18. Three-point goals — Baker, Summers, Holbert (3). Total — 11-26 11-14 38.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Bishop Ready 15 9 11 15 50
Logan Elm 15 7 7 9 38
