‘13 trap’ sparks Bureau Valley to regional win over Morrison

MANLIUS – At Bureau Valley, when it rains it Storms.

The Bureau Valley Storm took a two-point lead after one quarter, then opened up the floodgates, outscoring Morrison by 14 points in the second quarter and 17 in the third quarter on the way to a runaway 60-26 victory in Class 2A Bureau Valley Regional quarterfinal at the Storm Cellar on Monday night.

“I think once we switched to the 13 trap, I think it made us work a lot harder, and once we had some success doing it, we just kind of took off from there,” BV senior Elijah Endress said. “It’s been a couple of games since we’ve done that. Felt really good being able to take some momentum into Wednesday.”

The Storm (21-11) advance to meet No. 3 seed Riverdale (20-9) in Wednesday’s semifinals at 7:30 p.m. They have not played each other this season.

No. 2 Rock Falls (21-8) and No. 8 Oregon (17-14) meet in the first semifinal.

Storm coach Jason Marquis and Endress said it’s nice to have regionals at home.

“Thankful our administration puts the time and effort to host these regionals,” BV coach Jason Marquis said. “It’s another three nights away from their family. They could very easily not put in for it. But they believe it’s best for our student-athletes. Our administration wants to give our kids the best chance to succeed, so they realize playing games on our home floor is nice.”

“We’ve got some really good competition in our regional with Rock Falls, Oregon and Riverdale, all those teams,” Endress said. “It’s nice to have it at home, because we get pretty hot at our place.”

The Mustangs (11-21) held an 11-8 lead late in the first quarter on the strength of seven free throws, capped by a pair by Koltin Swaim.

Sophomore Wyatt Birkey followed a putback by Landon Hulsing with a three-point play with a layup on the break and free throw to give the Storm a 13-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Landen Birdsley opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer, Helms scored inside, and Hulsing sank a pair of tosses from the charity stripe to put the Storm up 20-11.

Jayden Weibenga sank a 3 for the Mustangs, which would be their only offense in the second quarter. Birkey scored again on the break, and Endress scored twice on drives around one by Birdsley, who ended the half with a steal and layup to send the Storm to the locker room with a 30-14 lead.

“Sometimes you’ve got to keep grinding,” Marquis said. “I thought they hit a couple shots on some late rotations on our part. I thought they had some contested 2s that went in early. We missed a couple of bunnies early. Thankfully, we were able to overcome that.

“Wednesday’s a different story. We’ve got to be on top of our game from the get-go. That’ll be a killer punch to overcome a slow start as good as a team that Riverdale is.

“Big thing is, it’s 13-11, and then what was it half? They had 14, right? Defensively I thought we competed and executed well, started to turn them over a little bit. I think for whatever reason our kids were a little apprehensive on the level of aggressive I think we need on the defensive end.”

Helms scored a pair of buckets before adding a third behind the arc to run the Storm’s lead to 39-16. Morrison scored four straight only to have the Storm score 14 straight to extend their lead to 53-20.

Reserves Colin Stabler and Zac Wiggim finished off the Bureau Valley scoring with a 3-pointer and 2-pointer, respectively, in the fourth quarter.

Ten players scored for the Storm, topped by Helms with 13 points and Hulsing with 12. The hosts had a trifecta with Logan Philhower, Birdsley and Endress chipping in seven points apiece.

Asher Ernest led the Mustangs with seven points, and Brayden Rubright added six.