By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Playing with confidence and keeping its composure led to a big Lakeland Conference boys' basketball win for Buchanan Friday night as the Bucks played before the home crowd and gave them an exciting 77-50 win over Coloma.
The Bucks outscored the Comets 36-8 in the third quarter to take a commanding 59-34 lead after three quarters of play. Coloma (0-2, 0-1) finished the first half with a 26-23 lead after a see-saw battle in the opening 16 minutes of play.
Clinton Orr's aggressive play in the first quarter kept the Buck's (2-0, 1-0) pretty much even with the Comets as Orr's speed and agility played a big part with the Bucks in the game. Coloma had built a 9-5 lead with four minutes to play in the opening stanza after a 9-2 run by the Comets. Orr scored seven of the teams 12 points in the first eight minutes.
A 13-0 run to open the third quarter was all the Bucks needed to get fired up and make the game a runaway.
"Defense," Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said of the win. "It was a little contagious, they got a few stops and they started to understand that if they play good defense good things start to happen. That was the most fun I have seen our kids have in quite a long time and it all started with them playing defense."
It was a total team effort as four Buck players scored 14 or more points in the contest.
"Our motto is to play together as one and they were just as happy to see other guys doing well," McBeth said.
Derek Anglero led all players with a game high 19 points as he knocked down three treys along the way along with four assist. Orr finished the night with 18 points and ripped down 11 rebounds. Avery Brown banged in 16 points and dished out four assist and came away with four steals. Marquis Hall finished the night with 14 points and nine boards. Jon Young stepped up big in the second half coming off the bench to score seven points and playing a huge part of the tough Buck defense.
The Bucks hit a sizzling 14-of-19 in the barn burner third quarter and finished the night 30-of-54 for a 55 percent average 15 of the shots came from behind the arc where the Bucks buried five.
Buchanan's tight man-to-man defense forced 16 Comet turnovers while Buchanan limited their miscues to 10 on the night.
"We talked about find your shooters, limiting our turnovers which we did in the first half," Coloma coach Brent Nate said of his teams play. "We were able to do that in the first half and what we talked about building on that in the second half went right out the window in the first three minutes of the second half. They took advantage of it and made shots and they wanted it more than we did."
Buchanan will travel to Marcellus on Monday for a non-league contest with the freshman game scheduled for 4:15 with the junior varsity and varsity games to follow.
Coloma defeated the junior Bucks 47-38 in the junior varsity game. Spencer Anglero scored a team high 14 points. Chad Herman finished the night with 13 for the Comets.
The Buchanan freshman team blew out the Comets 63-14 with Dylan Arnold scoring 14 for the young Bucks. Tyler Ledesma had seven for the Comets.
COLOMA 50
Joe Richardson 4 1-2 9, Matt Page 0 1-2 1, Tremayne Willims 5 5-7 15, Joe Stonebraker 2 2-2 8, Chris Dew 1 0-0 2, Alex Roman 3 3-6 10, Gabe Guidry 1 1-2 3, Josh Greco 1 0-0 2. Totals: 17 13-21 50
BUCHANAN 77
Derek Anglero 7 2-3 19, Avery Brown 6 3-5 16, Jon Young 2 2-2 7, Aaron White 0 1-2 1, Marquis Hall 6 2-5 14, Clinton Orr 8 2-6 18, David Watts 1 0-0 2, Jeff Jurue 0 0-0 0, Daniel Blackwell 0 0-0 0, Duru Dursun 0 0-0 0, Evan Cauffman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 30 12-23 77
Coloma 12 14 8 16 – 50
Buchanan 12 11 36 18 – 77
3-point baskets: Anglero (B) 3, Brown (B) 1, Young (B) 1. Stonebraker (C) 2, Roman (C) 1. Total Fouls: Buchanan 17, Coloma 18. Fouled out: None