The McPherson Middle School Boys Basketball were able to come away with wins from the A-Team, while the B-Team played hard, but fell to Goddard Eisenhower.
In the 8th Grade A-Team game, the Pups would have a dominant first half, propelling them to a 41-30 win. Head Coach Tyler Brown noted, “Our defense, in the first half, was a big part of us getting a win tonight.” He added, “We held them to 4 points in the 1st quarter and shut them out in the 2nd quarter to be able to go into halftime with the score 16-4.”
After forcing multiple turnovers in the first half, it was the Pups that suffered from turnovers in the second half, as they were outscored in the second half 25-26.
“We seemed sloppy and satisfied with just matching baskets after a tremendous start and first half. Needless to say we had a conversation about wanting to win every quarter of the game.” Coach Brown added, “We don’t want to play for 6:00 minutes and be losing at the end of it. Tonight was just a night where we saw everything in a game. We were absolutely awesome and yet we had times we were not looking too good. Somehow we need to find a way to stay consistent and not let our play dip for stretches in the game.” Brown concluded by saying, “These guys love to compete.”
McPherson 41 vs Goddard Eisenhower 30
Scoring Summary
Ashton Malm 12
Cole Cooper 11
Carter Bengston 6
Dane Becker 5
Cru Buchman 4
Nolan Pearcy 3
The B-Team would fall to Eisenhower 35-28. Coach David Goerzen said, “Our guys did a great job fighting back after being down so far. Like I’ve said in the past, we don’t give up.” He concluded by saying, “We need to find a way to get some more scoring out of a few more guys, and try to eliminate a few more turnovers, and we’ll be pretty tough to beat.”
Scoring Summary
Dane Becker 16
Nolan Pearcy 6
Ashton Nuss 2
Finn Bauer 2
Hayden Siemens 2
The 7th Grade A-Team would defeat Goddard Eisenhower 49-36. Head Coach Jay Crawford reflected after the game by noting, “We were really pushed, and I was glad because it was great to see how my guys would respond.” The Pups were up by seven at the half, they came out in the third quarter and put up 19 points, which allowed McPherson to put some distance between them and Eisenhower.
Although the Pups allowed the most points all season, Crawford credited Eisenhower saying, “This was the best team we have played this season,” He mentioned that there will be several things they will be working on in practice before traveling to Newton on Thursday. Coach Crawford concluded by saying, “It will not be hard to get the guys to lock in because the first time we played them we did not play well at all, and the team knows that.”
McPherson A-Team 49 Goddard 36
Scoring Summary
Carter Melton 4
Tripp Pelzel 4
Drake Timson 7
Jaxon Hoover 9
Kaleb Postier 11
Tre Winburn 14
The 7th Grade B-Team would fall 35-18, and following the game, Coach Crawford noted, “There are several areas we need to fix in practice.” he mentioned struggling guarding ball screens.” He added, “We need to continue to work on all phases of the game.” He concluded by saying, “This group continues to play hard, and Coach Stalnaker has done a very good job bringing this group along.”
Goddard Eisenhower 35 McPherson B-Team 18
Scoring Summary
Gavin Heider 2
Kepple Butcher 8
Logan Starks 8
