By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Hollywood icon Matthew McConaughey and Bedford North Lawrence basketball have something in common. After some dazed-and-confused moments, the Stars ended up alright, alright, alright with a coming-of-age, victorious debut.
BNL started each half a little rocky but finished in style, conquering Bloomington North 49-38 in the season launch on Tuesday night at BNL Fieldhouse. The ensemble cast fit together quite well during a key third-quarter burst as the Stars won back-to-back openers for the first time since 2017.
Senior standout Patric Matson scored 17 points and got outstanding offensive support from his supporting cast, balance that made a difference. That was most evident during the 13-2 spurt that erased a brief North lead to begin the second half, when five different Stars scored during the run.
From that point, BNL pulled away to a double-digit advantage in the fourth quarter, and the short-handed Cougars didn’t have the offensive firepower or experience to recover.
“We had a little bit of a dazed look offensively for the first few minutes,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “But the kids did a great job of playing through that and growing as we went.
“When you have four seniors on the floor, you kind of expect that. You could see we got tighter with everything we were doing. Our execution got better, we started valuing every possession.”
North trailed 23-16 late in the second period, then responded with the last two baskets of the first half (J.R. Cross splashed a trey and Jalen Williams crashed through the lane) and the first two of the third (midrange jumpers by Williams and Levi Lindeman). That got BNL’s attention.
Matson triggered the comeback with a lob off an inbound set and a breakaway slam. Then everyone else got in the act. Logan Miracle posted on the baseline for a bucket, Quincy Pickett popped a wing 3-pointer, Dax Short dropped a soft 6-footer in the paint, and Isaiah Sasser muscled home a basket in the lane. That powered BNL to a 36-27 lead.
Those contributions from multiple sources were vital. Pickett and Miracle finished with 8 points each, while Short and Sasser added 7 apiece.
“That will be a key for our season,” Godlevske said. “Everybody knows about Patric, but we have to have four other guys help him out to relieve that pressure, they have to respect that part of our team. That was a big step for us. That’s the sign of a good team.”
The other big BNL burst came in the first quarter, when Pickett, Matson and Short all swished bombs during a 14-2 run. North survived that as Cross shouldered most of the load on the offensive end. He totaled 20 points.
“He passed the test,” North coach Jason Speer said. “When you don’t have a second guy in double figures, it really hurts. Too much of a spurt, and not enough consistency over the course of four quarters.
“We have a lot of new guys that haven’t played together, with a lot of experience, and in Game 1 we’re playing against a well-connected Bedford team. We fought, we just need to work on the long game.”
North, with Luke Lindeman (last year’s scoring leader) still recovering from injury, couldn’t find a reliable second option. Williams totaled 8 points, but the Cougars were only 4 of 20 from long range. That made BNL’s third-quarter run seem even bigger. North will look a lot different when healthy.
“We were taking breaks. You can’t take breaks in a defensive game,” Speer said. “When things click and start to happen, you have to continue to do it. We couldn’t stay consistently with anything. We played hard. Bedford is just more connected. This is nothing we need to hang our heads about.“
The Stars, projected to be long-range snipers, were only 2 of 13 from deep the last three quarters. They had to find other ways.
“We talked about recognizing where we had advantages and taking advantage of that, get the ball where we needed to get it,” Godlevske said. “Patric did a great job of getting the ball where it needed to go. So it was a good growth thing.
“That was huge for us, mentally as a team, to see we could score in other ways. We will be a good shooting team, that’s our bread and butter, but being able to throw the ball in the post makes things easier. It’s a positive thing for our kids to see that.”
BNL will host Bloomfield on Saturday. The Cardinals will host Owen Valley in their opener on Wednesday night.
BLOOMINGTON NORTH COUGARS (38)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
5 Jalen Williams, f 0-5 2-10 4-6 8 2 8
15 Levi Lindeman, f 0-2 1-7 0-0 4 1 2
4 Rex Speer, g 0-1 0-2 0-2 0 2 0
12 Nate Walker, g 0-1 3-4 0-0 1 2 6
13 J.R. Cross, g 4-8 7-16 2-2 3 2 20
11 Ka’mereon Washington 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
23 C.J. Vaughns 0-2 1-3 0-0 2 1 2
Totals 4-20 14-43 6-10 24 10 38
BEDFORD NL STARS (49)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
5 Dax Short, f 1-2 2-4 2-2 3 2 7
22 Isaiah Sasser, f 0-0 3-5 1-2 3 2 7
31 Logan Miracle, c 0-0 4-5 0-0 4 2 8
10 Patric Matson, g 3-10 7-18 0-0 3 1 17
3 Quincy Pickett, g 2-5 3-6 0-0 4 2 8
12 Jacob Ritter 0-2 0-2 0-0 3 1 0
24 Gibson Crane 0-0 1-1 0-0 2 1 2
4 Parker Kern 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 6-19 20-41 3-4 22 11 49
North 12 9 11 6 – 38
Bedford NL 14 9 15 11 – 49
Turnovers – North 7, BNL 8
Field goal percentage – North 14-43 (.326); BNL 20-41 (.488)
Free throw percentage – North 6-10 (.600); BNL 3-4 (.750)
