Bucktail falls to BEA at home
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The Bucks may see quite a few games like the one they played Monday night when they hosted BEA, opponents that see a key to winning is to wear the Bucks out and that's unfortunately exactly what happened as the Eagles dropped them to 0-4 on the season with a 59-24 point loss.
After pulling within three in the second quarter, the Eagles outscored the home team 36-8 in the second half to keep the Bucks winless. A 17-man roster arrived at Bucktail from BEA as the Bucks dress 10 for varsity including five players that just played an entire JV game.
With just five players on both the JV and varsity rosters on a predominantly freshmen manned team, Bucktail Coach Gene Bruno knows that the Bucks are starting over in Farwell. Getting consistently good looks and shots is the key and he's in no way looking for or expecting sympathy from their opponents.
"The other night at Millville I was real satisfied because we ran a real good offense, but what was upsetting tonight is we didn't run our offense against zone," Bruno said following the loss. "That's three games that we played against zone and we got whacked, because we're not getting out shots out of the offense, when they play man we're good, but I want to see them run the offense better, I'll be happy when I see us running an offense consistently against the zone," he continued.
"I want to go against the zone, if we see it enough, which I think we will, I'm counting on these younger guys- we have three freshmen on the floor at all times so we have time to get better" Bruno explained.
Junior Dylan Cross pulled his team to within five points twice, once in the second quarter at 12-7 and once early in the third at 23-18. Lone senior on the team Cole Hillyer hit a layup following Cross's third quarter shot, getting the Bucks at 23-20 forcing BEA to take a timeout.
Unfortunately for the home team, BEA’s timeout worked.
Immediately following the timeout Kahale Burns hit a three for BEA, followed by a pair of three-pointers from Alex Gavlock as the two sparked what would be a quarter and a half of dominance from the visitors. Chase Thompson of BEA and Braylon Fantaski for the Bucks each scored game-highs of 12 points.
"The bottom line is we have to learn to get our shots out of the offense and less one on one play, that's the biggest part of our growing pains right now" finished up Coach Bruno.
Bruno was particularly pleased with freshman Brett Mason's night. The 9th grader played a full JV game and was called upon in the first minute of the varsity game, only coming out for a short break or two. "Mason kind of summed up what I am starting to see with the freshman, I see skill improvement, I see ball handling improvement and shooting improvement, there's going to be some success down the road once we get through these growing pains" the coach said.
Wednesday will find the Bucks at CMVT, Friday at Montgomery and Saturday afternoon will see the Bucks return home hosting St. John Neumann. In an odd scenario Neumann is the only class A opponent the Bucks will face all season, as teams like Austin and Galeton are staying up north this season.
BEA 12 11 16 20-59
Bucktail 2 14 6 2-25
BEA: Thompson 1, 2 4 for 6-12; Alex Gavlock 2, 2-10; Owen Irvin 5 -10; Hayden Vaughn 3, 2 for 3-8; Cam Watkins 3 -6; Everett Herr 2 -4; Ayden Jodon 2 -4; Kahale Burns 1 -3; Blaze Angellotti 1 -2;
Bucks: Braylon Fantaski 6 -12; Cross, 1, 2-8; William Steele 1-2; Hillyer 1 -2.