Jan 23, 2021

Mid-Buchanan drains threes throughout in victory over East Buchanan Friday

Posted Jan 23, 2021 3:34 AM
Sophomore Joe Clark brought the house down with an alley-oop dunk late in the first half in Mid-Buchanan's 55-40 win over East Buchanan Friday night. Photo by Whitnee Ice.
Sophomore Joe Clark brought the house down with an alley-oop dunk late in the first half in Mid-Buchanan's 55-40 win over East Buchanan Friday night. Photo by Whitnee Ice.

By TOMMY REZAC

St. Joseph Post

FAUCETT - Things have gone decently well for Mid-Buchanan boys' basketball this season.

Despite fighting through some injuries, the No. 3 Dragons (11-4) had won five of their last seven games coming into Friday, head coach Bryce Kemper recently eclipsed 400 career wins and their average margin of victory this season has exceeded 16 points.

After a set back against Van Horn in the Bill Burns Classic last weekend, and a loss to a terrific Class 2 Richmond group on Monday, Mid-Buchanan has gotten some confidence back.

After a 30-point win against Platte Valley Tuesday, the Dragons stayed hot with a 55-40 win over East Buchanan (7-6) on Friday night in Faucett.

After a first quarter that featured four lead changes and three ties, and a nine-point scoring effort by the Dragons in the second, Mid-Buchanan pulled away with four, third quarter three-pointers and three more in the final period.

"As the game went on, our defense was able to get us going and then we started to hit some shouts from the outside," Coach Kemper said. "That helped a lot, too."

Mid-Buchanan stayed aggressive on defense throughout, forcing 15 turnovers and limiting the Bulldogs to just four made threes. Compare that to the 12 Mid-Buchanan made.

The Dragons also got the home crowd going with the highlight reel dunk from sophomore Joe Clark, as seen above.

"Joe Clark is gonna do some pretty good stuff here at Mid-Buch," Kemper chuckled. "We hadn't run that play for a couple of years. I wasn't sure they'd even remember it, but then they kind of figured it out after awhile and we were able to get the dunk down. It was nice. I thought that kind of kicked us up a little bit and got us a little run there before the end of the half."

The Dragons ended the first half on a 6-0 run and led 40-31 entering the fourth. A couple of threes by Blake Hunter and another by fellow junior Caiden Bailey helped the Dragons jump out to a 51-33 lead with a little over five minutes left.

"(East Buchanan) was packing it in pretty tough," Kemper said. "They were making it hard to get it inside. At halftime, we put in a little different offense just to try and get a little inside-out action. We were able to do that. We got some better looks at the basket than we did in the first half and that got us going there."

Up next for Mid-Buchanan, after a bout with Class 3 No. 2 Greenwood Saturday, is the North Platte tournament, featuring North Andrew, Mound City, Plattsburg, Platte Valley, Polo and, well, North Platte.

The Dragons hope to get healthier between now and then. Junior starter Stetson Lieffering has come back as he battles through a torn ACL. Kemper is also hopeful that senior starter Drew Russell can return by next week as well.

"It's a loaded tournament," Kemper said. "All of those teams will look like nothing compared to what we see (Saturday). We're going to go down (to Springfield) and play Greenwood. I know they've got a D-1 kid (Aminu Mohammed) going to Georgetown. It's going to be fun. When we first took the game we were completely healthy. But, we're going to roll down there and see what happens."

Mid-Buchanan 55 - 16, 9, 15, 15
East Buchanan 40 - 12, 6, 13, 9

Mid-Buchanan scorers - Caiden Bailey 13, Tyler Brown - 11, Joe Clark - 10, Blake Hunter - 8, Javan Noyes - 6, Stetson Lieffring - 3, Reese McClurg - 2, Lane Ellison - 2

East Buchanan scorers - Cru Conaway - 7, Jack Archdekin - 6, Connor Musser - 5, Kaden Woodside - 5, Drew Thompson - 5, Carson White - 4, Luke Webb - 4, Adam Engnes - 3, Blake Antle - 1

Caiden Bailey puts up a shot in the second half of Mid-Buchanan's 55-40 win over East Buchanan Friday. Photo by Whitnee Ice.
Caiden Bailey puts up a shot in the second half of Mid-Buchanan's 55-40 win over East Buchanan Friday. Photo by Whitnee Ice.

You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.