By By JEFF FISHER / Vigilant/Argus
A 23-point third quarter scoring outburst lifted the Bridgman Bees to a 59-40 road victory over the Eddies Friday night in a Lakeland Conference match up.
The Eddies forced the Bees into four straight turnovers to open up the game.
The Eddies held Bridgman scoreless until the 5:34 mark of the first quarter. The Eddies effectively shut down Bridgman's inside game of Dan Kunde and Craig McNees, despite a huge height advantage.
The Eddies were able to go inside on a back door play to their senior center Tony Hayes Hayes torched the Bees with eight first quarter points.
The Eddies found themselves down 13-12 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter featured a interesting battle of coaching wits. The Bees went on 10-2 run after a dunk by Kunde to open up a 21-14 lead.
With two minutes to go in the half and being in foul trouble, Bridgman coach Mike Miller ordered his team to hold the ball at the top of the key to make the Eddies come out of their zone, which gave the Bees trouble getting points.
Eddies' coach Jeff Kozinski told his team to stay in the zone which had the Bees players holding the ball at their hip for the remainder of the quarter.
The Bees took a 23-17 lead into the half.
Both coaches felt the strategy worked to their favor.
The Bees got hot to begin the third quarter. They opened up a double-digit lead (30-20).
But the Bees' Zac Nemitz scored nine third quarter points including three, three-pointers to open up the Eddies defense and a 46-30 edge. The Bees eventually pulled away from there.
Nemitz led all scorers with 20 points including six three-pointers.
Nick Sweet and Dan Ponegalek scored 10 points each.
Hayes paced the Eddies with 17 points. Branden Muszynski added 10, and David Daniels grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Eddies (1-1, 0-1) will now travel to White Pigeon to play in the Sturgis Bank &Trust Holiday Classic beginning Dec. 28-29. The Eddies play Dowagiac in the first round at 6 p.m.
The Eddies will return home again Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 to host River Valley.
BRIDGMAN 59
Todd Hendricks 0 4-6 4, Boo Ott 0 0-0 0, Zach Welsher 0 2-2 2, Dan Kunde 3 1-7 7, Jon Malm 0 0-0 0, Dan Ponegalek 4 2-4 10, Nick Sweet 4 0-0 10, Blake Ivers 0 0-0 0, Zac Nemitz 7 0-0 20, Pat Kading 0 0-0 0, Seth Coffing 0 0-0 0, Craig McNees 2 2-4 6. Totals: 20 11-23 59
EDWARDSBURG 40
Adam Hancock 1 1-2 3, Steve Gowen 1 0-0 3, David Daniels 1 0-0 2, Pat Huggett 0 0-0 0, Nate Harness 0 0-0 0, Tony Hayes 8 1-2 17, Branden Muszynski 4 1-3 10, Zak Bollenbacher 1 0-0 3, Jake Roberts 0 0-0 0, Alex Antoniv 0 0-0 0, Ted Pietrzak 0 0-0 0, Kevin Stack 1 0-0 2. Totals: 17 3-7 40
Bridgman 13 23 46 59
Edwardsburg 12 17 30 40
Three-point baskets: Sweet (B) 2, Nemitz (B) 6, Daniels (E), Muszynski (E), Bollenbacher (E). Total fouls: Bridgman 12, Edwardsburg 19. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: Kunde (B). J.V. results: Bridgman 38, Edwardsburg 30