By TOM NYHUIS
Niles Daily Star

BUCHANAN – The effort was there but the execution wasn’t for the Bucks in Friday’s battle of the Lakeland Conference unbeaten as the Buchanan boys’ basketball team fell to Berrien Springs 67-37.

Turnovers and poor shooting spelled trouble for the Bucks early and by the half they found themselves down 15 – 28-13.

The Shamrocks outscored Buchanan 14-8 in the third quarter as the Bucks we’re unable to find their shooting touch that they have had in their previous seven games of the season.

Berrien held a commanding 42-21 lead after three quarters of play.

“We could never get anything going offensively,” Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said following the loss. “I counted eight turnovers in the fist quarter and we weren’t hitting shots. They are playing a 2-3 zone and we are turning the ball over and that’s pretty tough. Berrien is a pretty good team and they base things on good possessions and playing sound defense.
“There probably not out there to get steals and create turnovers and here we were giving them the ball and they shot the ball like it was their own gym and we shot like we never shot it before. It was a tough night for us and luckily it is only one game and we’ll get better. Give Berrien Springs credit they came out ready to play after 10 days off and we kind of came out and laid an egg tonight.”

Heading into Friday night’s game Buchanan (5-3, 3-1 Lakeland) had been averaging 72 points a game.

At the other end of the court the Shamrocks (8-0, 5-0 Lakeland) had the hot hand as Matt Little scored a team-high 15, draining three from 3-point land, while Tyrice Carter was busy adding 14.

Mark Westendorp chipped in adding 10. Berrien connected on seven 3-point shots through the night. If there was any place that they did struggle it was at the free throw as the Shamrocks finished the night 16-of-30.

“For not playing in 10 days I was kind of concerned a little bit of where we would be,” Berrien Springs coach Steve Spenner said. “We played great defense in the half court and we wanted to make it a half court game. They (Buchanan) has been putting up a lot of points and we wanted to make them work for every possession. We talked in practice about making them have three or four passes and I think we did that for the most part. We got back on defense and we played go transition defense and didn’t get any lay ups in transition and that was the key defensively”

Buchanan held a slight advantage in rebounds with Richie Reed pulling in nine of the teams 31 rebounds to the Shamrocks 29 caroms as Matt Little raked in six.

Turnovers were a big factor in the game. Buchanan coughed up the ball 32 times, while the Shamrocks limited their miscues to 16.

Buchanan’s Reed and Daniel Blackwell lead the team with seven points apiece.

“We had a couple of senior that played hard out there tonight,” McBeth said. “Richie played outstanding it just wasn’t enough but he played hard. Marquis Tyler played hard and Bryan Kuntz, we didn’t even know if he was going to play tonight, and he played hard so we have kids giving effort we just have to do some things a lot better.”

Buchanan will be back at home on Tuesday in a non-league contest as Bronson will travel into town. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

BUCHANAN 37
Spencer Anglero 0 0-0 0, Dylan Arnold 0 0-0 0, Savon Brown 0 0-0 0, Richie Reed 2 2-3 7, Bryan Kuntz 2 1-2 5, Andrew Hearington 2 1-2 6, Dane Cauffman 0 0-0 0, Daniel Blackwell 2 1-2 7, Ryan Catalano 2 0-0 4, Jalen Brown 1 0-0 2, Brandon Jackson 0 0-0 0, Marquis Tyler 3 0-0 6. Total 14 5-9 37
BERRIEN SPRINGS 67
Matt Little 6 0-1 15, Nolan O’Brien 2 0-0 5, Deontae Scoot 0 2-2 2, Anthony Johnson 0 0-0 0, Tyrice Carter 6 2-4 14, Mark Westendorp 2 4-6 10, Jared McCarver 0 1-2 1, Steven Felusme 3 3-7 9, Idowu Oluwaseunt 1 1-2 4, Jonathan Shembarger 1 1-2 3, Jeffery Gumbo 1 2-4 4. Totals 22 16-30 67

Berrien Springs 13 28 42 67
Buchanan 8 13 21 37
3-point baskets: Buchanan 4 (Blackwell 2, Hearington 1, Reed 1) Berrien Springs 7 (Little 3, Westendorf 2, O’Brien 1, Idowu 1). Team Fouls: Buchanan 21, Berrien Springs 14. Fouled out: Kuntz (BU). Technical fouls: Buchanan 1. Varsity records: Buchanan 5-3, 3-1 Lakeland; Berrien Springs 8-0, 5-0 Lakeland