Spencer controls tempo on basketball court against Greenwood

By Valorie Brecht The Spencer Rockets curbed the Greenwood Indians’ scoring potential while putting in plenty of buckets of their own on their way to a convincing win last Friday night at home.

In the first seven minutes of the Jan. 5 contest, Spencer scored 11 points while Greenwood earned 7. Over the next five minutes, the Rockets battened down the hatches, not allowing Greenwood to get good looks inside while going on a 15-point run themselves up to 26.

Leading the charge for Spencer was sophomore Sam Bezlyk, who scored 13 points just in the first half. He was aided by fellow sophomores Mathers McHone and Breckin Miller.

Greenwood finally broke through with a 2-pointer with around six minutes left in the half; however, just after that, the team was called for an over and back, one of a few penalties that slowed any momentum the Indians were trying to build throughout the game.

Greenwood scored 2-point field goals from Nicholas Vetterkind and Chad Oldham, as well as a three from Cody Eckes before the half was done, increasing the team’s point total to 16. The Rockets didn’t slow up any, either. Spencer had a couple of successful shots from beyond the arc, from sophomore Noah Anderson and junior Austin Lalicata. Anderson made a layup as well, as did Bezlyk and junior Carter Luepke. Bezlyk made a free throw and one last jump shot before the half was over to give Spencer the 41-16 lead at the break.

Spencer coach Charles Jennings was pleased with how the Spencer offense got rolling as well as it did.

“I thought we played well offensively. They were in a zone there for quite a bit of the night and had a little boxand-one against us, and our offense ran well. When we had ‘em in man, we were able to score in all of our sets that we run, so that was all good to see. Our zone offense played well. We had a lot of open looks; we just gotta make ‘em,” he said.

The Rockets made enough of those baskets to give themselves a comfortable lead, though. Not even 30 seconds into the second half, Bezlyk scored another 2 points. That was answered by a 2-pointer from Greenwood’s James Durrstein, who came alive more in the second half, doubling his scoring output from 3 to 6. Spencer responded by Breckin Miller scoring 2, after picking up an offensive rebound and putting it back in, much to the excitement of the Spencer fans. Then McHone hit a mid-range shot, with the Rockets not content to let their foot off the gas pedal just yet. Soon after that, Greenwood got called for traveling, but Spencer did as well just a couple of minutes later, showing that both teams were getting a bit ahead of themselves as they tried to get into an offensive rhythm.

Six minutes into the half, Durrstein had another positive moment as he captured a teammate’s rebound and put it back up for a score. Unfortunately for the Indians, a little while later they got called for traveling once again. Shortly after that, there was another bright spot for the Indians as Greenwood’s Wyatt Mulvaney helped make up for lost time. He sunk both of his free throws at the line for his first points of the game.

Yet, Spencer gradually kept pulling further and further ahead. Bezlyk made a basket after an offensive rebound with five minutes left in the game to make it 64-30. A Luepke layup, Anderson three and one more Luepke layup rounded out the last minutes of the game while Greenwood ran out of steam to score any more baskets. That left the final score 71-30 in Spencer’s favor.

Bezlyk was his team’s leading scorer, with 21 points. Sixteen of those points came from 2-point baskets.

“Sam Bezlyk had a really nice game, although he didn’t see a ton of time. He starts, but usually he plays long minutes, but tonight it turned out in our favor so we were able to play some guys that don’t usually get a whole lot

Please see Spencer vs. Greenwood, page 15

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS Spencer vs. Greenwood, from p. 13

of playing time and get them some experience out there,” said Jennings.

Seven other players besides Bezlyk scored points, including McHone with 12, Anderson and Miller with 10 each, Wes Nieman with 7, Luepke with 6, Lalicata with 3 and Reed Knecht with 2.

“Reed is coming back off an injury, so we kind of brought him back a little slowly. But he played good minutes tonight. He’s one of the better defenders on the team for sure,” said Jennings.

Luepke also saw more playing time than in games past. “Carter got more minutes tonight than he’s been getting, so that was good. And he was productive during the varsity game, so we liked that,” said Jennings.

When asked what specific things he felt his team needed to work on before the next game, Jennings had no hesitation in his response.

“Turnovers. We can’t turn the ball over as much as we have been turning the ball over. We’ve been doing better on rebounding, but the biggest thing is turnovers,” he said.

On Greenwood’s side, freshman Keegan Gipe led the way in scoring. He scored 10 points, all 2-point shots. Durrstein was next with 9 points. Eckes had 3. Mulvaney, Vetterkind, Oldham and Anton Livingston each had 2.

Above, Bryce Deegan shows off his vertical as he makes a basket in last Thursday’s home game against Blair-Taylor. Below, Jacob Schill drives toward the basket. Despite a close score of 32-28 just after halftime, the Loyal boys ran out of steam and Blair-Taylor won 54-42.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS