Bedford controls key stretch in third quarter to earn first win of season
TEMPERANCE – Coaches often say the first three minutes of the second half are the most critical of all stretches of a basketball game.
Bedford junior Carter Ryan took those words to heart Friday night, getting hot at just the right time to lead his squad to a 58-52 victory over St. Mary Catholic Central. It was the Mules’ first victory of the season.
“I was hitting them, but we had such good ball movement, and we were executing well,” Ryan said. “We just had really good flow with each other. It felt really good to get the win.”
The first half was a tight game with neither team able to pull away. SMCC had its biggest lead of the game at 10-5 midway through the first quarter. The game was tied five times in the first half, and the two teams went into intermission deadlocked at 29-29.
The third quarter, however, was Bedford’s time to shine.
Max Hite opened the quarter with a basket to put Bedford up 31-29, then Ryan followed it with a two-pointer from just inside the 3-point line, swished a triple with 5:49 left and then assisted on a bucket by Ish Hakki to give the Mules a 38-31 advantage, forcing SMCC to call a timeout.
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Ryan hit two more buckets in the third quarter as Bedford took a 48-42 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Mules used its weave offense to perfection in the second half, getting several open opportunities.
“We made sure to be patient,” Ryan said. “We know we can get good looks, and it led to some open shots.”
Bedford’s biggest lead was 52-43, which came on a bucket by Ryan. SMCC cut it to 55-52 with 20 seconds to go on a triple by Drew Vuich, but three free throws and a big defensive rebound by Noah Colon kept the Mules in front.
“I thought we did a nice job of running our offensive sets,” Bollin said. “We talked about not forcing things and being patient. Whenever we got the ball into the high post, it led to some good shots. That’s a tribute to our power forward (Colon). He made some great passes out of the high post.”
Ryan and Jace Williams shared the Mule scoring lead with 13 points each. Bollin said Ryan is getting more and more comfortable with the speed of the game.
“When he was a sophomore, we brought him up and he would struggle with confidence,” Bollin said. “He’s really a different player now. He caught the ball, shot the ball with confidence and had some great drives to the basket. I’m really proud of him. He’s a great kid and even better person.”
It was a balanced effort for Bedford, who got 12 points from Hakki and 10 from Hite.
Bollin was excited to get the first victory in seven starts.
“Early on in the season we struggled with playing hard all of the time,” Bollin said. “We’ve kind of rectified that in practice. If you don’t play hard every day in practice, the games are a lot harder to play well in. We’ve figured out how to play hard all of the time. Now we are staring to play well. They are getting more comfortable. This is nothing but a good thing.”
SMCC fell to 3-3 on the season with the non-league loss. They are still looking for their first win streak of the season.
“We haven’t been in the rhythm all year,” Windham said. “We have some players who have to figure out what we need in order to be successful, and I’m trying to help them with that. It just wasn’t a very good outing tonight for us.
“We have a big week coming up with Flat Rock and Airport. We just didn’t take care of business tonight.”
Buddy Snodgrass led the Falcons Thursday with 15 points while Brady Hines scored nine.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Bedford boys top SMCC to taste victory for first time this season
