By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – So that’s what a victory feels like. It had been so long, like Captain America hibernating in the ice after saving the world long. In basketball terms, Bedford North Lawrence was in suspended animation, perhaps not for 66 years, although six games in a month’s span sure seemed like it.
This was a Marvel flick. Not because the Stars finally ended a saga of a losing streak, but that they did it with an ensemble of heroes. And they were marvelous offensively, erupting from a scoring funk to avenge all the losses of late.
Mooresville just happened to be the unfortunate victim when BNL went off.
From the ashes of the longest losing streak in program history, BNL arose with its best shooting performance of the season, indeed its best of this short century. With senior wing Quincy Pickett snapping out of his slump, the Stars blitzed the Pioneers for an 83-61 triumph on Tuesday night. Pickett totaled 20 points, Patric Matson added 18, and Logan Miracle slammed his way to a double-double as BNL (9-11) recorded its first win in . . . how long, Logan? “It’s been a month,” he roared while leaving the locker room. Yes, exactly a month. Time crawls when you’re not having fun.
BNL took out its pent-up frustrations on the unsuspecting Pioneers. The Stars sizzled, converting 35 of 51 shots. They went supernova, scoring the most points since netting 84 during a win over Horizon Christian during the 2020-21 campaign. The 1980s were known as the Decade of Excess, and BNL reaching the 80-point plateau was a bit excessive. The Stars have done that only six times in the last 11 years, and they had averaged only 48.6 points during the six-game skid.
Perhaps this was the BNL everyone was waiting on. Pickett popped treys, Matson swooped, Miracle ripped down two dunks. Oh sure, there was a missed slam (ahem!) and a couple of blown layups, and the Stars missed all their free throws. That’s like picking specks of pepper from the sugar. Everything else was sweet and almost perfect.
BNL awoke late in the first half. Tied at 31-31, the Stars ended the half with a Miracle layup and Pickett bomb, then started the third quarter with an 11-3 blast as Matson soared to snag a lob for a layup, Pickett swished from deep, Miracle posted inside for a layup, Dax Short powered home a rebound off a missed free throw, and Miracle cratered a dunk for a 47-34 advantage.
“It’s just playing together,” Miracle said. “A lot of it was finding each other open for shots, moving the ball around.”
The Stars ended the suspense with a 13-2 run to open the fourth quarter. Pickett struck again from the deep corner, Parker Kern scooped a loose ball and dashed the lane for a bucket, Matson buried a bomb, Pickett faded from the short baseline for a basket, and Short capped the run with another trey for a 70-48 lead.
BNL’s best? “I would say, yes,” coach Kurt Godlevske said. “We’re a strong catch-and-shoot team, and we had gotten away from that. We had too many kids trying to shoot off the dribble, trying to do too much. We started simplifying things. That’s our strength.
“It’s not like we haven’t played hard, we haven’t played well together. To see us to do that, and win, is a real good reward for us.”
Pickett was the poster boy for this win. He hit 6 of 7 from long range, compared to his 1-of-13 from the same spots the last three games.
“It was not very good, I knew I was in a slump,” Pickett said. “My teammates still have a lot of confidence in me, getting me the ball when I was open. They told me to keep shooting, it would go in. Every dog has his day.”
“We need him,” Godlevske said. “We needed all five of those guys to keep that going. That makes us effective.”
Matson was equally efficient, hitting 8 of 10 shots. Miracle’s double-double included 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Short finished with 11 points. Not to be overshadowed, the bench did its part as Kern totaled 6 points and Jace Nicholson added 7 in the closing minutes.
“Give credit to them, they played a great game,” Mooresville coach Gavin Groninger, a former standout at Michigan, said. “Our rotations weren’t very good, they ran a lot of good stuff, we gave them open shots. To their credit, they knocked them down.
“We’ve seen them play well. We knew that was a good team. They just needed a little bit of confidence. We didn’t want to be the ones to give it to them. They got it in a large dose tonight.”
Brevon Burns paced the Pioneers (12-11) with 13 points while A.J. DeFur added 12.
So much for the six-game slide. BNL started the final week of the regular season with a vital victory.
“We needed it real bad,” Miracle said.
“It was bothering everyone,” Pickett said. “Everyone just did their part.”
BNL will conclude the regular season and celebrate Senior Night on Thursday against Jasper.
MOORESVILLE PIONEERS (61)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
1 Brevon Burns, f 3-6 4-9 2-2 4 0 13
2 Tyrone Elmore, f 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
10 A.J. DeFur, g 2-6 4-13 2-2 3 2 12
11 Michael Irving, g 1-1 4-5 0-0 1 1 9
12 Silas Smith, g 1-3 1-5 3-4 4 3 6
5 Chris Thompson-Moore 1-3 2-5 0-0 2 2 5
9 Bradley Robbins 1-7 2-10 0-0 2 2 5
3 Jameson Elliott 1-1 1-1 2-2 0 0 5
4 Seth Conner 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 3
14 Keegan Burch 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
23 Caden Jones 1-3 1-3 0-0 1 0 3
22 Mason Samuels 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 12-32 20-54 9-10 22 10 61
BEDFORD NL STARS (83)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
5 Dax Short, f 3-5 4-6 0-0 3 2 11
22 Isaiah Sasser, f 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 4 2
31 Logan Miracle, c 0-0 6-8 0-1 11 2 12
10 Patric Matson, g 2-2 8-10 0-2 4 1 18
3 Quincy Pickett, g 6-7 7-9 0-0 4 3 20
12 Jacob Ritter 1-4 1-4 0-0 0 0 3
4 Parker Kern 0-1 3-4 0-0 1 1 6
23 Tyler Stigall 0-1 0-2 0-0 0 1 0
11 Colton Taylor 0-0 2-3 0-0 1 0 4
44 Ben Conner 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
14 Jace Nicholson 1-1 3-3 0-0 0 0 7
15 Jaden Gilbert 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 13-21 35-51 0-3 28 14 83
Mooresville 13 18 15 15 – 61
Bedford NL 16 20 21 26 – 83
Turnovers – Mooresville 7, BNL 12
Field goal percentage – Mooresville 20-54 (.370): BNL 35-51 (.686)
Free throw percentage – Mooresville 9-10 (.900); BNL 0-3 (.000)
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