Boys hoops: BHS grinds past Grant; WCS stays perfect at home
In a season of character-building — when victories have been tougher to come by than a candy cane in a cornfield, Bartlesville High School’s boys basketball team celebrated an electrifying outcome Friday.
Spearheaded by three double-digit scorers — Riley Duong, 17 points; Jacob Veit, 15; and Nash Zervas, 13 — the Bruins spurted past U.S. Grant High School, 55-38, at the Bruin Fieldhouse. Bartlesville (3-13) snapped a five-game losing streak while limiting an opponent to less than 40 points for the first time this season.
This was the first of four consecutive home games for the Bruins, who are led by Clent Stewart in his 10th year at the helm. Next up, the Bruins will play host next Tuesday to Putnam City (7-11) and on Friday to Enid (8-7). Ponca City (3-12) comes to town on Feb. 5 for a non-district battle.
The pure reality is Bartlesville’s level of opposition in the final two-and-a-half weeks diminishes compared to its grueling gauntlet through Goliath-sized obstacles.
On Friday, the Bruins put it all together against the Generals. Admittedly, U.S. Grant (0-12) is far from the tallest jackleg fence along the season course. But, the Generals competed with irrepressible energy — especially in the second half — to force the Bruins to elevate their quality of play.
The battle started out with a series of body blows. Duong displayed the early hot hand for the Bruins, burying a trey on back-to-back possessions — one of them set up by Dennis Duncan’s cross-court pass from the corner — to lift the Bruins to an 8-4 lead. Grant Clark also made some early quiet contributions — a blocked shot and a steal — to help Bartlesville withstand Grant’s early barrage.
After falling behind, 14-9, the Bruins finished the first quarter on a 4-0 spurt, with two buckets by Veit. On one of them, he made flash cut toward the rim and Collins delivered the pass to set up the layup. Collins also dove to the floor several times in the game to try to gain ball possession.
Early in the second quarter, Zervas finished off a transition layup, which was triggered by Veit’s fast break drive up the middle and dump-off pass to Zervas on the right wing.
The Bruins finally took the lead on Veit’s tip-in off his own miss, 17-16. Duong added a rural zip code special — hitting a trey launched from about eight feet behind the arc — to help power Bartlesville to a 22-16 halftime lead.
Partway through the third period, Duong and Duncan dusted the net on consecutive three-pointers to extend the lead to double digits, 32-22. That’s when Grant siphoned from a well of bottomless energy to keep Bartlesville from continuing to pull away. Bartlesville led by nine after three quarters, 37-28.
Grant chewed the margin down to four points, 37-33, early in the fourth period. But, the hustle of Eli Robertson — which had been a factor throughout the game — hustled for an offensive rebound that led to Grant losing the ball out of bounds and triggered an 11-0 run by Bartlesville to clinch the win. Veit put an exclamation point on the fourth-quarter surge with a steal and coast-to-coast layup.
Bartlesville 55, U.S. Grant 38U.S. Grant 14-2-12-10 — 38Bartlesville 13-9-15-18 — 55
BartlesvilleJacob Veit 5 5-6 15, Riley Duong 5 3-8 17, Grant Clark 0 3-5 3, Nash Zervas 4 4-4 13, Dennis Duncan 1 1-2 4, Trae Collins 1 1-2 3. Totals: 16 17-27 55.
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BOYS: Wesleyan Christian 61, Copan 26
Wesleyan Christian’s Tyrel Cloud poured in 25 points to make his final regular season home court appearance even sweeter.
Kael Siemers, Mason Jensen and Cooper Holley added to the celebration of a remarkable WCS senior class that improved to 16-3 this season and 6-0 at home with only home game remaining.
The cumulative success by the players from the Class of 2024 is remarkable — a cumulative record of 70-19 and nearly unbeaten at home (30-2). This crew of 12th graders could achieve 75 or more career wins in what remains of this year’s regular season and playoffs.
Cloud, Siemers and Holley have been part of this remarkable wave of excellence from the start. Jensen joined the program after sitting out a season following his transfer from Bartlesville High School.
Siemers and Trey White each contributed nine points in Friday’s win.
“We rebounded really well,” said third-year WCS head coach Steven Cooks, whose career record is 53-14, including a 22-1 home mark. “We really picked it up around the third quarter and pushed our lead a little bit.”
Copan had remained within reasonable striking distance in the first half, thanks largely to the play of their point guard Tryston Easter.
“He did a reall good job of getting into the paint and making some plays,” Cooks said. “In the third quarter, we picked up our defense.”
WCS will be on the road for two games this week. The regular season finale is Feb. 6 against Mingo Christian.
WCS then will play host — for the first time during this era — to the Class B district playoffs, starting Feb. 9. The other three schools in the district will be Copan, Bluejacket and Welch.
The Mustangs have compiled a 6-6 playoff record the previous three seasons.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Boys hoops: BHS thumps foe; WCS thunders to win
