Wildcats take on the Eagles on home turf
After a tough loss for the boys and girls against Golden City last Tuesday night, and snow plaguing the local area for the later half of the week, the Bronaugh Wildcats and Lady Wildcats looked forward to taking down the Miami Eagles. Here are the results from the Boys/Girls double header that took place at Bronaugh High School.
As usual with small town basketball, the ladies kicked things off at the Bronaugh Basketball Gym. Bronaugh only had five players on the roster tonight, with the other girls not able to play either because of injury or sickness. The Wildcats took advantage of the Miami Eagles by scoring up a 20 point lead before the first half ended. In the second half of play, the Eagles really didn’t have a chance, as the now 12-8 Bronaugh Lady Wildcats scored the win and made it 71-44.
Top scorers for the Wildcats were #22 Nicole Haggerman with 41 out of the 71 points total, then it was #21 Gretchen Banes with 12 points and her sister #5 Josie Banes finished it off with 12 points. For the Miami Eagles, there top scorers were #11 Abby Talley along with #24 Destiny Round with 14 points each, then it was #10 Hannah Filingberger with eight points, and wrapping it up was #9 Jessica Loper with four points.
I spoke with Head Coach Fred Lundien about the dominating win over the Miami Eagles, and he told me that “I'm just glad we didn't foul out. The girls played tough and played really well with each other tonight. The score book is going to have a lot of balanced scoring, which is what we needed. We can't have just one girl scoring all the time and we need to learn how to all score. That is why I’m so pleased.” I reminded the coach that there were only 5 games left of the year plus the championship tournament in late February, and asked what he liked out of tonight that should continue on throughout the rest of the season, and asked what he wanted to fix before the year is over. “Fundamental Defense, and to just battle throughout these ball games. We only have 5 players right now and have nothing to lose so we need to just rush it and see what happens.”
While lots of people were happy after the girls game, that reaction could not be found after the boys game. While the guys competed for the majority of the ballgame, with only trailing by 6 to 8 points for the first three quarters, the Miami Eagles beat the Bronaugh Wildcats 69-50 and are now 4-17 on the year.
Top scorers for the Wildcats were #14 Strauss Banes with 20 points on the nights, then it was #5 Issac Earnest with 11 points, and finally #11 Eli Griffiths with seven points. For the Miami Eagles, it was #50 Brandon Willcutt with 21 points, then it was #30 Micah Link with 18 points, and wrapping it up is #3 Stanley Harriman with12 points.
While disappointed with the outcome, Head Coach Fred Lundien still was optimistic about his group of men, saying “We just have to keep working offensively. We make the right decisions but we just don’t execute them correctly. We do it right but the way we deliver it is the wrong way. We just have to work out a lot of things on offense, but our defense is tough but offensively we have to keep working.” But it isn’t all doom for the Bronaugh Boys Basketball program. Coach reminded me that “This is still a young team with only two seniors playing this year. We are still learning and making good plays on defense, but offensively we are still learning. We try to play these younger guys and have them make mistakes now, because in the future they are going to get it right. These kids are battling and our two seniors are doing everything they possibly can to lead this program and I’m super proud of them. We just mainly have to work on offense.”
Well with one win for the girls team and one loss for the Boys team, Bronaugh keeps on moving forward to the next game. That will take place at the Chilhowee Highschool against the 12-10 Lady Indians and the 5-16 Indians on Thursday, February 10th.