Buchanan falls to Bridgman, 49-44

Published 4:13 pm Saturday, March 3, 2007

By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Missed free throws down the stretch kept Buchanan from snapping the 36-game win streak of the Bridgman Bees Friday night in Lakeland Conference basketball action.
The Bees played just good enough to hold off the Bucks 49-44 in the regular season finale before each team heads into next week's district action at Watervliet.
Senior Brad Burn, playing in his final home game, was determined to work hard along with the rest of his teammates to pull off the upset and celebrate Senior Night with a win.
It wasn't do to lack of hustle by the Buck, but the play of a good Bridgman team that disappointed the home crowd.
"You have to do everything right to beat those guys," Buchanan coach Read McBeth said. "They are not going to beat themselves. I thought our kids played as hard as they could play, did a lot of good things and was proud of their effort. A few things here and there and we didn't execute a couple of offensive rebounds that we gave up in the first half."
But according to Bridgman Coach Mike Miller, the Bucks pulled down 13 offensive rebounds in the game, the most by any opponent all season. Buchanan finished with a total of 25 boards compared to the Bees' 20.
"We finished with 17 turnovers and that is pretty sloppy," Miller said of his team's play. "Those two areas are what we are going to have to improve on. Give Buchanan credit they offensive rebounded extremely well and that was a big difference in the game."
One of those came off a missed free throw. Marquis Hall pulled in the rebound and put the ball back up and in to cut the Bees' lead to four, 44-40 with 3:05 to play in the contest after Bridgman had opened up a 12 point lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Bucks cut into that lead with a 10-2 in a three minutes span. From that point it was the Bees with the opportunity to widen the lead, but hitting just 1-of-4 free throws in the next minute and a half, kept the game within reach for the Bucks.
It was the Bucks missing the front end of two one-and-ones that kept the game with the Bees leading 49-40 with :53 to play.
A steal on an in-bounds play by Buddy Williams, who got the ball to Derek Anglero for a score with :30 seconds to play and the Bucks trailing by seven.
Burns got the final points for the Bucks with a runner from the left side and was fouled. Burns connected on the free throw and it was a 49-45 game with 19.5 seconds but the Bucks were unable to stop the clock and the Bees walked out with the win.
Anglero scored a team-high 13 points with Avery Brown picking up all 12 of his points from behind the 3-point line. Burns and Hall each scored nine points in the game.
Nick Sweet who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and finished the night with 14 led Bridgman. Seth Coffing finished the night with 10.
Bridgman's junior varsity took a 65-43 win. Chris Woofter scored 12 for the Bucks. The freshman Bees won 49-42 with Daniel Blackwell leading the Bucks with 26.
Buchanan 45
Derek Anglero 5 1-2 13, Avery Brown 4 0-0 12, Jon Young 0 0-2 0, Clinton Orr 0 0-0 0, Brad Burns 4 1-3 9, Marquis Hall 4 1-2-9, Evan Cauffman 0 0-0 0, Buddy Williams 1 0-0 2, Totals 18 3-9 45
Bridgman 49
Todd Hendricks 3 2-2 8, Zach Welsher 0 0-0 0, Dan Ponegalek 2 1-3 5, Jon Malm 0 0-0 0, Seth Coffing 3 3-7 10, Nick Sweet 5 2-2 14, Craig McNees 3 2-3 8, Zac Nemitz1 2-4 4, Totals 17 12-21 49
Bridgman 6 26 41 49
Buchanan 10 22 30 45
3-point baskets: Buchanan 6 (Brown 4, Anglero 2), Bridgman 3 (Sweet 2, Coffing 1), Total fouls (fouled out) Buchanan 20 (Hall), Bridgman 14, Records Buchanan 10-10, 6-8 LAC, Bridgman 18-2, 14-0 LAC