By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
ELLETTSVILLE – Boom! That’s the deafening sound of an offensive explosion, hard-rock music to Bedford North Lawrence’s unplugged ears. Come on, feel that noise. The Stars went a little wild.
Boom! That’s the impact of long-range missiles landing to decimate Edgewood’s defenses. There’s no iron dome to stop these bombs from causing damage. Shock and awe, indeed.
Boom! That’s the power of rebounding. For the first time this season, the Stars were dominant, shattering some glass. Three big booms, three reasons why BNL was successful.
When the blasts finally subsided, BNL had recorded an impressive road victory, conquering Edgewood 61-54 on Saturday night. Patric Matson scored 17 points and Quincy Pickett added 15 as the Stars (8-5) recovered from a streak-ending loss with a quality comeback from an early deficit.
BNL, still staggering from the physical punishment absorbed in its loss at Seymour the previous night, was in danger of a repeat performance when the Mustangs roared – in GT, manual-shift, high-speed mode – to a 23-14 advantage in the second quarter. That’s when the volcanic BNL eruption started. From that point, the Stars caught fire with a sensational 31-6 run that was impressive and devastating.
It started late in the second quarter, with a Matson trey, of course. Pickett followed with a bomb, and Logan Miracle posted in the paint for a layup off a Dax Short pass that got BNL within a point at the half.
Then came the real noise. Isaiah Sasser opened the second half with a post-up, Pickett popped a corner trey and scored off a sharp back cut (with a Miracle pass). Pickett continued his barrage with two more bombs, Short swished another one, Matson converted a steal into a breakaway slam, and Parker Kern cashed in a fast break as BNL bolted to a 45-29 lead.
“We were still a little dazed,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “So we started being more aggressive defensively with trapping, trying to get them to play a little faster. That injected energy into us. It was a matter of waking up and moving the ball.
“Q got going, that was a big thing. Patric and Dax hit some big threes, so it was a good team effort. We’ve been trying to play that way. Once we got some points going, the kids relaxed and it made things easier.”
Edgewood did not submit quietly. After Miracle’s offensive rebound basket for a 3-point play gave BNL a 55-40 lead with 2:58 left, the Mustangs came out firing. Carson Huttenlocker, who shot Edgewood to its early lead, connected twice on corner treys, two of the six bonus bombs from the Mustangs in the final frame.
“It was good to see the way we competed to the end,” Edgewood coach Matt Wadsworth said. “When you get down, it can go either way. We dug our heels in and competed.”
Huttenlocker ripped three straight from long range as Edgewood exploded to that 23-14 lead.
“Shot selection was so important as we built that lead,” Wadsworth said. “At the end of the half, we had three quick shots that helped key the run for them. Then their hot shooting created a gap.
“Our transition got a little lax. We did so well early in the game to get back to the paint and really clog things up. It was just a few times that it broke down, but it was enough to create opportunities for them.”
Huttenlocker finished with 19 points for Edgewood, which hit 11 treys overall.
Short added 8 points for BNL. The other huge statistic was BNL’s overwhelming advantage on the boards. Miracle grabbed 11 rebounds as the Stars carved out a whopping 35-17 edge in that important category. Edgewood had only one offensive rebound in the second half. That’s the best meaning of one-and-done.
“We settled down and did a much better job defensively,” Godlevske said.
BNL will return home to battle powerful Jeffersonville on Friday night.
BEDFORD NL STARS (61)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
5 Dax Short, f 2-4 3-8 0-2 4 3 8
22 Isaiah Sasser, f 0-0 3-3 0-0 6 0 6
31 Logan Miracle, g 0-0 3-7 1-1 11 1 7
10 Patric Matson, g 2-4 6-14 3-4 7 3 17
3 Quincy Pickett, g 4-9 5-11 1-2 3 0 15
24 Gibson Crane 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 2 1
4 Parker Kern 0-2 2-4 0-0 0 0 4
23 Tyler Stigall 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0
11 Colton Taylor 0-0 0-0 3-4 0 0 3
Totals 8-19 22-46 9-15 35 12 61
EDGEWOOD MUSTANGS (54)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
24 Carl Norris, f 1-3 1-4 0-0 0 3 3
44 Kam Ranard, f 1-1 4-5 0-0 2 1 9
10 Carson Huttenlocker, g 5-8 7-10 0-2 2 1 19
23 Caden Jones, g 2-5 3-9 0-0 5 1 8
13 Will Inman, g 2-4 3-7 0-0 2 3 8
2 A.J. Norris 0-1 2-4 0-0 1 1 4
4 Owen McGovern 0-1 0-1 1-4 4 2 1
22 Reece Roberts 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 2 2
Totals 11-22 21-43 1-6 17 14 54
Bedford NL 9 13 23 16 – 61
Edgewood 10 13 11 20 – 54
Turnovers – BNL 11, Edgewood 8
Field goal percentage – BNL 22-46 (.478); Edgewood 21-43 (.488)
Free throw percentage – BNL 9-15 (.600); Edgewood 1-6 (.167)
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