by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
It was a big night for Lane Bruning and New Hope as the Statesmen beat visiting Fairfield Christian 76-66 Tuesday night.
For Bruning, his first basket of the night gave him an even 1,000 points for his career. He was fouled on the play and hit the free throw to get to 1,001. He added 14 points in the second quarter on the way to a 29-point night.
“This is a great accomplishment for Lane,” New Hope coach Shane Roese said. “When he came out his freshman year, he had never played organized basketball before. The time and effort he has put in to develop his game has been impressive. It’s been exciting to watch the work he has put in translate to success on the floor.
“We have asked him to play many different roles and he is always up to the challenge.”
The game was fairly tight much of the way with New Hope holding a 36-35 lead at the half.
The NH advantage was 48-46 with 3:20 left in the third when Bruning hit a jumper and then handed out a couple of assists to Hunter Cavanaugh and Tyler Cook to get in front 54-46.
Bruning and Cavanaugh both added scores while the Knights added five to their total to make it 58-51 at the end of the third.
Fairfield kept fighting and had the score to 65-52 with 3:30 to go.
Xander Rink had two steals and a bucket and Bruning scored six more points in the final three minutes to secure the win for New Hope.
Along with his 29 points, Bruning had 11 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. Cavanaugh had 18 points and six steals and Rink put in 10 points and had five steals.
“I’m thankful for our five seniors in Lane Bruning, Isaac Herron, Landen Krouse, Thad Pollock and Thomas Scribner. They are a high character, hard-working group of young men,” Roese said.
“We appreciate their commitment to maintaining the culture of Statesmen basketball.”
Bruning is the fourth boy from New Hope to reach the 1,000-point plateau. He joins Clayton Rhyne (who played his senior year at New Hope) who has 1,359 career points, Noah Highfield (1,234 points) and Isaac Roese (1,027).
New Hope 76, Fairfield Christian 66
Fairfield Christian — TJ Blair 5-2-13, JP Vance 9-2-25, Jimmy Schmitz 1-0-2, Danny Blair 4-3-11, Sam Workman 5-2-12, Hudson Harper 1-0-3. Three-point goals — Blair, Vance (5), Harper. Total — 25-54 9-13 66.
New Hope — Hunter Cavanaugh 7-3-18, Landon Krouse 1-0-3, Xander Rink 4-2-10, Landen Parker 1-0-3, Nathanial Ames 1-1-4, Thad Pollock 1-0-2, Tyler Cook 3-0-7, Lane Bruning 11-6-29. Three-point goals — Cavanaugh, Krouse, Parker, Ames, Pollock, Cook, Bruning. Total — 29-52 12-13 76.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Fairfield Christian 14 21 16 15 66
New Hope Christian 17 19 22 18 76
