By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
SCOTTSBURG – Scottsburg went deep into its defensive playbook, to the experimental section, almost on the back page. Found the perfect formula for a comeback victory.
Reeling from Bedford North Lawrence’s near-flawless attack and staggering from the weight of an 11-point deficit late in the third quarter, the Warriors finally found the antidote for BNL’s venom. They erased the lead in less than two minutes, then took control to subdue the stubborn Stars.
Switching to a 1-3-1 trap changed the momentum as the Warriors, ranked No.3 in Class 3A, battled back for a 57-51 victory on Saturday night. Jack Miller scored 26 points as Scottsburg (4-0) won for only the third time in the series.
Until the defensive adjustment, the Stars (1-2) were dictating the flow, burying treys on one end, squeezing the Warriors on the other. With leading scorer Kody Clancy held without a field goal, Scottsburg needed another hero. And that was Miller.
BNL owned a 38-27 lead when he exploded. First came a deep wing trey, then a layup in transition off a turnover. He followed that with a drive through the lane for a tough running banker, then capped the comeback with a steal and layup for a 39-38 advantage. The “Pressure Cooker” (the well-known nickname for Scottsburg’s venerable Meyer Gymnasium) was at full throat, bearing down with heat, and the Stars wilted a little.
“We have different guys step up, with our senior leadership,” Scottsburg coach Eric Richardson said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
The Stars recovered from that body shot with treys from Patric Matson and Quincy Pickett to take a 44-41 advantage, but the next Scottsburg surge was the difference. Wyatt Zellers slashed the baseline for a 3-point play, Miller crashed the lane for another bucket, and Caden Richardson converted a post-up in the paint for a 3-point play. Another Miller wing jumper gave the Warriors a 51-44 lead, and that was enough.
BNL had only eight turnovers, but five came in the third quarter, including costly ones when Scottsburg made its move.
“That’s on me,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “I saw it last year, that it (that 1-3-1 trap) bothered last year’s group. We had shown it to them, hadn’t really worked on it a lot. When you’re three games into a season and don’t know a team has that in their arsenal, it’s hard to prepare. Good call by him.”
“We’ve experimented with some different things,” Richardson said. “Just in case. They were picking us apart in the first half.”
Until that point, BNL was poised for a road upset. Matson and Noah Godlevske opened with three straight bombs as the Stars blasted to a 13-8 lead. Dax Short’s rebound basket, Godlevske’s corner trey, Pickett’s baseline 15-footer and a Short short shot pushed BNL to a 22-14 edge, and that grew to double digits when Matson (baseline drive and a backdoor cut) and Godlevske (his third from deep) got BNL to halftime with a 29-19 advantage.
How good was that? Scottsburg’s first three wins were all running-clock runaways. This was new territory.
“The first time you face that kind of deficit, you’re curious to see how you will respond,” Richardson said. “I kept waiting for them to show a little bit of fight. They finally did.”
Matson paced the Stars with 22 points, Godlevske added 13, and Pickett totaled 8. BNL’s defense focused on Clancy, and he was scoreless until 28 seconds remained in the third quarter. Zellers had 16 points and 7 rebounds, and Scottsburg took advantage of a 15-0 difference from the line. BNL did not attempt a free throw.
“We’ve kept ourselves in these first three games, just by how hard we’ve defended,” Godlevske said. “We did exactly what we wanted to do in the first half. Our kids handled that well, pretty darn near perfect.
“We have to make sure we’re polished for the HHC. That’s our first goal. I can’t be teaching on the fly, and we had to do a lot of that tonight. We’re seeing things we haven’t had a chance to work on.”
BNL will start the league battles on Friday night, hosting Columbus East.
BEDFORD NL STARS (51)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
10 Patric Matson, f 4-6 9-13 0-0 3 1 22
31 Logan Miracle, f 0-0 0-2 0-0 4 2 0
11 Noah Godlevske, g 3-12 5-15 0-0 2 1 13
1 Trace Rynders, g 0-3 0-3 0-0 1 5 0
12 Maddox Ray, g 0-0 1-1 0-0 3 3 2
3 Quincy Pickett 2-5 3-6 0-0 5 0 8
22 Isaiah Sasser 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 2 2
5 Dax Short 0-0 2-3 0-0 3 0 4
Totals 9-26 21-45 0-0 24 14 51
SCOTTSBURG WARRIORS (57)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
11 Jack Miller, f 2-4 11-16 2-2 4 1 26
20 Wyatt Zellers, f 1-5 5-10 5-8 7 1 16
5 Caden Richardson, f 0-2 2-6 1-1 6 2 5
32 Kody Clancy, g 0-1 0-3 7-8 2 0 7
1 Dare Bowles, g 1-6 1-6 0-0 2 3 3
12 Ethan Robison 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0
Totals 4-18 19-42 15-19 22 8 57
Bedford NL 13 16 9 13 – 51
Scottsburg 10 9 20 18 – 57
Turnovers – BNL 8, Scottsburg 4
Field goal percentage – BNL 21-45 (.467); Scottsburg 19-42 (.452)
Free throw percentage – BNL 0-0 (.000); Scottsburg 15-19 (.789)
