Boys basketball: Lesson well learned; Bureau Valley bounces back against Putnam County

KEWANEE - Jason Marquis was glad his Bureau Valley Storm basketball team lost Tuesday night.

He said they didn’t deserve to win and if they had pulled the game out, it still wouldn’t have been a good thing.

On Wednesday, they put their lack-luster, 51-49 loss to Annawan the night before behind them, giving a much better effort with attitude and play, defeating Putnam County, 50-38.

“It’s kind of a unique thought process, you lose by two (points) and you’re thankful you didn’t have three more,” Marquis said. “(If you win) you probably don’t get the full experience of the lesson. You probably get about 10 percent of it. ... The sting of it shouldn’t go away. We can miss shots all day, we can turn the ball over all night. We can do a lot of things like that. But your attitude and your effort, those are the two things you should never give up.

“I thought tonight they showed a sign of maturity and responded in absolutely getting popped in the face and kicked around for four quarters Tuesday night in what can only be described as a clinic in one team having more effort than the other team.”

BV junior center Landon Hulsing said it was a lesson well learned.

“It just hurts more when you lose. Winning doesn’t teach you anything. You learn from losing,” he said.

Hulsing said junior point guard Bryce Helms helped get the Storm focused Wednesday.

“He said we needed to be better on defense and that kind of got everybody ready. I think we just played better,” Hulsing said. “He’s good at controlling people and keeping the team together.”

Corbin Chhim had 13 points and Landen Birdsley had 12 for the Storm, who improved to 2-1 and put themselves in position to win the tournament with two more wins. Elijah Endress added nine points and Hulsing had eight.

Senior Owen Saepharn hit four treys, leading the Panthers with 14 points while senior Orlando Harris added 12 points.

The Storm stretched a seven-point halftime lead to 12 by outscoring the Panthers 11-6 in the third quarter with Chhim hitting a buzzer-beater 3-pointer for a 40-28 lead. Elijah Endress and Birdsley also hit 3-pointers to fuel the Storm’s fire.

BV used an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter to open up a 50-35 lead to put the game away.

Hulsing said the Storm simply played much better Wednesday than the night before.

“(It was) our ability to just run the floor and pass ahead. Our defensive rebounds were much better today. We just weren’t physical enough yesterday. Today was much better,” he said.

“Proud of our response, but we have to develop the maturity to play well on a night and still come in hungry the next night,” Marquis said. “This isn’t a team where they can win a game and they have a little celebration because it’s been a tough year. This is a team that can win a game one night and then come in the gym hungry for getting better the next day.

“We’re more physically capable than we were a year ago. But there’s still a maturation process that’s here at times and still a leadership void at times, that I think some of our kids that have the ear of their teammates still have to figure out what it takes to lead. And it can’t be body language thing and it can’t be, ‘We lost, but I played well.’ It’s a 15-man game. Five guys on the floor and 10 on the bench engaged.”

Saepharn hit a 3-pointer from the left corner for PC’s first points of the game and added another trey late from the right corner to shoot the Panthers to a 13-13 tie.

The Storm closed the first quarter with hoop by Hulsing and a steal and layup by Chhim to beat the buzzer for a 17-13 lead.

Saepharn hit the third of four treys of the night to start the second quarter and Harris scored on a drive to pull PC within 25-22.

BV countered with a basket on the break by Hulsing on a pass from Helms. Chhim then made a nifty lob pass to Birdsley over the PC defenders on an inbounds play past halfcourt, and Birdsley took in a reverse layup before the buzzer to give the Storm a 29-22 halftime lead.

Bureau Valley, Annawan and Wethersfield all stand 2-1 after the first three nights. Tom McGunnigal’s Wethersfield Flying Geese beat Stark County, 60-49, in Wednesday’s late game.

After taking a day off for Thanksgiving, both teams will return to action Friday. The Storm will face Stark County at 2 p.m. with the Panthers to follow at 3:30 p.m. against Annawan.

The round-robin tournament concludes Saturday with the Storm facing Elmwood at 3 p.m., PC meeting Stark County at 4:30 p.m. and Annawan playing the host Geese at 6 p.m.