Bulldogs Win thriller over Merrol Hyde
The boys and girls from Red Boiling Springs traveled to Merrol Hyde on Friday Jan 22nd for a quick rematch.
The Merrol Hyde girls basketball team is in a serious rebuilding mode and they think they can be competitive in 3 years.
The Red Boiling Springs Lady Bulldogs basketball team sits atop the district standings with Watertown and the kids from Merrol Hyde are in last place with no district wins. To be honest none of these kids have very much experience and not a lot of hope. However, they try really hard. Now to the game and a 67-19 win for the Lady Bulldogs that could have been much worse. Lady Bulldog Coach Dustin McKinney played everyone except the managers and most of the second half there was not much defense played by the Lady Bulldogs. That was by design.
Much of this article deals with hard to beleive stats such as the Lady Bulldogs having 4 kids that have played all year played extensive minutes and all played well but failed to score. One starter did not play due to injury and two 8th graders scoring points that will count as points scored during her high school career. The Lady Bulldogs shot 65% from the floor. Normal for this team is around 24%. The Lady Bulldogs dressed 15 players for a high school game and no one can remember the last time that took place.
Scoring totals: Cayley Tuck-15 points, Hannah Smith-13 points, Macy Raines-12 points, Shaylee Ellingson-11 points, Maggie Isenberg-6 points, and Abby Tuck-5 points.
The Red Boiling Springs Bulldogs have been in some close games this year and Lady Luck has turned out to be playing on the other team. Lady Luck got beat last week as the Bulldogs pulled out a big district win in double overtime and they did it on the road at Merrol Hyde by a final score of 51-41.
The game was expected to be close but no one thought that miracle shots would fall for the Bulldogs. We are getting ahead of ourselves and let’s pick up the game with a first quarter score of 13-7 in favor of the Bulldogs. By halftime the Bulldog lead stood at 1 point19-18. Turnovers and shooting less than 30% will not get you many points.
The Bulldogs had one of their worst scoring quarters of the season scoring only 4 points on two baskets by Jordan Powell. The great part of the third quarter was the Bulldog defense holding Merrol Hyde to only 5 points. Before we become critics of these kids we must remember that holding the ball and using different kinds of strategy becomes a useful ploy to disrupt the other team and sometimes it looks bad on paper but not on the final scoreboard.
The 4th quarter was tight all the way until the Bulldogs, down by 3 points, Justin Bergdorff got the ball at the end of the game. With the clock ticking down the seconds, 5-4-3-2-, he looked cool and calm as he knocked down a three pointer to send the game to overtime. Now we are in overtime and the score of 34 all as we jump to start overtime. With Asberry and Powell plus Bergdorff and Byfield all scoring points the Bulldogs find themselves down 41-39 as Freshman point guard Hunter Kirk brings the ball across center court line and 9 seconds on the clock. The smallest kid on the Bulldogs crosses the center line and you know Merrol Hyde has instructions from their coach not to foul. So Kirk does a replay of Justin and with the clock ticking 5-4-3-2 Kirk just lays the ball off the glass as the horn sounds and here comes double overtime. The kids from Merol Hyde failed to score a point in the final overtime and the Bulldogs who were worn out to say the least managed to score 10 points and a 51-41 district win was their reward.
Scoring totals for the heartbreak kids: Powell-16 points, Asberry-13 points, Kirk-10 points, Byfield-7 points, and Bergdorff finished with 5 points.
