Boys basketball: Newman rallies to beat BV at home

STERLING – After Newman’s hot start, Bureau Valley went to work and chipped away. Then when the Storm took their biggest lead midway through the fourth quarter, it was the Comets’ turn to get things going down the stretch.

Newman closed with a huge run over the final 3:34 on Friday night, rallying to top BV 64-57 in a Three Rivers East game at home.

[ Photo from Bureau Valley at Newman boys basketball ]

“We knew we needed to win this game to still have a chance in conference [for the title], so when they got up by seven, we said we couldn’t let them pull away,” senior forward Lucas Simpson said. “I feel like once we got down, we started speeding things up a little bit and forced them into some turnovers, then we slowed it down and ran our offense when we needed to.

“I think a big key was the adrenaline from making those big plays in key moments.”

Simpson scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, and had three runout layups off of steals to help turn the momentum. His final steal at halfcourt turned into a breakaway dunk with 10 seconds left, sending the Newman crowd into a frenzy.

“We turned up our defensive intensity, and I felt like we started to draw fouls instead of committing dumb fouls,” Simpson said. “We got in rhythm, and once we did that, we were just fine. We got some big steals, too, and the ending, to dunk it, that just felt great.”

Trailing 55-48 with 4:08 to play after Corban Chhim capped a 13-3 BV run with a coast-to-coast steal and layup, the Comets battled back. Evan Bushman hit his fourth 3-pointer of the night to ignite the closing 16-2 run; Simpson scored eight points in the final 2:38, the first two coming on a layup off an alley-oop pass from Garrett Matznick.

After the alley-oop, Simpson’s fast-break layup off his own steal gave Newman a 56-55 lead with 2:20 to play. Chhim drove to the basket for a layup with 44 seconds to play to cut the Storm deficit to 58-57, but Matznick drained four straight free throws before Simpson’s dunk capped the Newman victory with an exclamation point.

“We knew we had to work hard and we had to rebound, that was a big thing. We just worked hard on offense and made our shots,” sophomore forward George Jungerman said. “That kind of brought the energy and got us hyped up to get that last little bit out of the game and seal it.”

The Comets (15-9, 3-3 TRAC East) opened the game on fire from 3-point range, building a 22-8 lead less than 3 minutes into the second quarter thanks to three 3s by Bushman and one each from Matznick, Isaiah Williams and Jungerman.

“We shot 3s really well, and we had strong rebounding. It was a great start,” Jungerman said. “That’s huge for us. It’s great to beat BV; it was close last time, and it was close again tonight. It’s big to win these conference games at home.”

But the Storm (13-9, 1-4) had the answer the rest of the half, closing the final 5:04 on a 14-4 run to cut the deficit to 26-22 at halftime.

Elijah Endress hit a 3 out of the break and added a jumper, then Landon Hulsing scored inside before assisting Justin Moon under the basket as BV grabbed a 31-29 lead just 2 1/2 minutes into the third period.

“I think our rebounding in the middle was good, and we made good passes and had a lot of assists. We had fewer turnovers, and we ran the offense better,” Hulsing said.

In a high-intensity, physical battle the entire night, the teams traded body blows for the next several minutes, and Newman led 43-42 after three quarters. That set the stage for BV’s run to grab the seven-point lead midway through the fourth.

In that surge, Endress nailed a 3, Bryce Helms and Hulsing scored inside, and Chhim scored off a pair of steals and hit a pair of free throws after a technical foul was called on Jungerman for pushing a BV player after battling for a rebound.

But then the Storm watched as the Comets were the ones to finish the game with a huge final spurt.

“I felt like after they got that technical, I thought we’d have better momentum, but that’s not how it happened. They turned it around and came out harder than us, and we didn’t defend well enough at the end,” Hulsing said. “It was just rough, because we could see it happening and didn’t know how to stop it. We just kept turning it over and it just snowballed.”

Simpson had a double-double with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four steals, George Jungerman and Bushman both scored 12 points, and Isaiah Williams stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, four rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block, as the Comets assisted on 17 of their 21 baskets. Jungerman grabbed six rebounds and two steals, and Matznick added eight points, seven assists and three rebounds. Cody McBride chipped in three assists and two steals as Newman forced 23 BV turnovers and nabbed 13 steals.

Hulsing just missed a double-double with 16 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, and Endress had 16 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Chhim finished with 15 points, three rebounds and three steals, and Moon added seven points, eight rebounds and two assists. Logan Philhower and Landen Birdsley each dished three assists. BV shot 50% from the field (22-for-44) – including 61% (14-for-23) in the second half – and had 14 assists on 22 field goals for the game.