Bucs Beat Huskies on the Road
Maybe the Super Bowl was on everyone’s mind last Friday night. Sloppy ball handling and poor shooting marred both teams’ performance on the court at Harlem High School. However, the Bucs were able to overcome their difficulties and overwhelm the Huskies at the line to sweep Harlem for the season.
Neither team was able to hang on the ball in the opening minutes of the game. Neither team scored until Dustin Boardman sunk a three point shot with 5:22 left in the first period. The Bucs picked up the ball after Harlem missed a shot. Jack Adams was fouled and the Bucs got it back inbounds. Unfortunately, they lost the ball in a bad pass. The Huskies missed their shot; the Bucs got the rebound, but lost the ball out of bounds. John Utley grabbed the ball and tied the game with a three point shot. The Bucs tried to drive in and lost the ball again. Utley picked it up and returned it the other direction for two points. Brandon Codina returned the lead to Belvidere with a three point shot. John Utley helped Harlem regain the lead with a drive up the middle. He lost the ball a minute later and regained it to score again. After a missed shot with less than 30 seconds to go, the Bucs gave it up. Jon Correa made a lay-up at the buzzer to give Harlem an 11 – 7 lead.
The two teams went back and forth at the beginning of the second period. Brandon Codina found another three point shot to get the Bucs within one. Adam Cox was fouled and made both his free throws. This gave the Bucs a short-lived lead. The Huskies came back, sinking a three pointer themselves. Both teams started to switch around their offense, looking for an advantage. The Bucs tied things up after Boardman took a pass while under the basket for two points. Harlem took a quick timeout, but lost the ball after carrying it. The Bucs missed a shot, got the rebound and missed again. Jack Adams was fouled and made both shots. Harlem regained the lead on a pair of shots, but the Bucs began to settle down as the half wound down. Adams was not covered inside and brought the Bucs within one. George Waddell gave the Bucs a one point lead after driving inside. After the Huskies missed a two point shot, Wade Mootrey picked up the rebound. He passed to Josh Easley who drove into the paint and passed to Nate Culvey waiting under the basket. The Huskies rushed to block his shot. Instead of taking the shot, he passed it back to Easley, now unguarded, for an easy jump shot. The Bucs went into halftime with a 24 – 21 lead.
Harlem regained the lead early in the third period. The Bucs stayed with them, but were unable to do better than trade shots with the Huskies. The Bucs finally tied things up with 2:07 left in the period. Brandon Codina had nothing but time to make a three point shot to make the score 33 – 33. After that, the Bucs didn’t look back, scoring the next six. Ryan Shelton made a shot at the buzzer for Harlem, but the Bucs still had a 39 – 35 lead.
The Bucs let Harlem get back into the game at the beginning of the quarter. They took a timeout to get some focus. It worked. The Bucs had a height advantage inside and took advantage of it. George Waddell grabbed a rebound and scored. After a bad pass, Codina stole the ball away for a lay-up. The Huskies took a timeout to think things over, but with time running out, Harlem was forced to foul Belvidere in order to get the ball back. The Bucs made eleven out of sixteen free throws in the last five minutes of the game. That was enough to extinguish any rally Harlem tried to make. The Bucs got the ball back with 10 seconds left and held onto it to end the game. In the end it wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to win the game 60 – 51.
The Bucs took on East at home on Thursday. The score was unavailable at press time. Sycamore comes to Belvidere on Saturday night. The Spartans are 13 – 5, 6 – 3 in their conference. The game starts at 7:30 at Wood Gym.
