Bulldogs roll by North Butler boys

HAMPTON – The Bulldog boys’ basketball team took North Butler by surprise with their pressure on the way to a convincing 72-35 non-conference victory on Thursday, Dec. 10.

A combination of over-confidence with records going in (the Bearcats were 2-1 and the Bulldogs 0-2) and different competition faced had something to do with that.

“That’s what I was thinking,” North Butler coach John Jones said. “Going into this game, we beat Central Springs, from last year, we went a bit of a losing streak after (our win over) Northwood, but, we’ve got to put this behind us.”

But Bulldog interim coach Matt Lokenvitz said his team played much better than their previous two starts.

“We didn’t play very well (the first two games),” Lokenvitz said. “We had low energy and we didn’t really control the game at all. We were shooting 25 percent from the field. We just didn’t play well.

“We are a team that we need energy, we need enthusiasm, all of those things to fuel the rest of our basketball game. Tonight, we talked about this week, ‘we’ve got to find a way to push ourselves forward.’ And we thought, that we press from the get-go, get our energy up early and see where we go from there and we played really well, pushed the ball and the team bought into what we were trying to do.”

With the Bulldogs pulling out early, the frustrations for Jones mounted and he was assessed a technical foul in the second quarter after he felt there should have been a foul called.

“I threw my marker,” Jones said of what earned him the technical. “I was frustrated. I thought he got…I saw he got hit in the head and so…and they weren’t calling a whole lot for us and so, it is what it is.”

He added that he knows his team is going to get this kind of pressure from other teams now.

“Our guys have got to fight through it. We’re going to have times where we have West Fork, Osage, we can talk about Newman, they did the same exact thing. I think we had a better time at Newman breaking the press and I told my kids it’s a mental thing right now.

“We knew it was coming, I told them, ‘hey, put this behind us. We have a big game (Friday) against St. Ansgar and if we flip the script, take care of the ball, play good defense, we have a chance in that ball game.’”

Jordan Severs posted a game-high 19 points for the Bulldogs, but got double-figures from four others, including 13 for Jace Spurgeon and 10 each from Mario De La Cruz, Marco Guerrero and Cal Heeren.

North Butler was led by Corbin Lewis’ 14 points, who banked in a three to end the first half and had a break-away dunk in the second half.

Besides the pressure, Lokenvitz said that he knew the Bearcats weren’t deep in their rotation and that played into the Bulldogs’ hands.

“We knew that (about pressure), but we also knew they weren’t very deep,” Lokenvitz said. “They only play 6-7 guys. We have 10-13 guys we can play in any situation, so that was the game plan. Press early, press often and push the ball every chance we get and get a ton of lay-ups early.

“And then, we are starting to figure out how to shoot the right three-point shots. We shoot a ton of threes, but we’re figuring out how to get penetration, kick out for a wide-open shot is a good shot, not dribble, dribble, dribble and then launch one up. Shooting the right shots, like you saw tonight and not the wrong shots, where you shoot 16 percent and get into a whole. The kids bought into it and I guess it worked out for us for this game, anyway.”

Bulldogs 72, North Butler 35

North Butler (2-2, 2-1)– Avery Boos 0 0-2 0, Owen Almelien 1 2-2 4, Alex Shultz 3 0-0 6, Nathan Hawker 1 0-1 2, Corbin Lewis 5 3-6 14, Fletcher Buss 0 1-2 1, Kaleb Salge 1 1-4 5. Totals 20-42 6-17 51.

Bulldogs (1-2, 0-1)– Jordan Severs 6-20 2-2 19, Mario De La Cruz 5-9 0-0 10, Jace Spurgeon 6-10 1-1 13, Benji Sauke 0-2 0-0 0, Colin Hill 0-2 0-0 0, Eli Walton 0-1 0-0 0, Riley Heeren 1-1 0-0 3, Marco Guerrero 4-9 0-1 10, Tommy Birdsell 0-0 0-0 0, Cal Heeren 4-6 0-2 10, Kale Folkerts 0-0 0-0 0, Scott Harr 1-2 0-0, 2, Payton McNealy 2-3 1-2 5. Totals 29-65 4-8 72.

N. Butler      6   15     3   11      -   35

Bulldogs    16   27   15   14      -   72

Three-point goals– NB 1 (Lewis); H-D 10 (Severs 5-10, De La Cruz 2-2, C. Heeren 2-4, R. Heeren 1-1, Walton 0-1, Spurgeon 0-1, Sauke 0-2, Guerrero 0-4). Rebounds– NB 25 (Salge 8, Lewis 6, Hawker 4, Buss 3, Shultz 2, Almelien, Boos); H-D 31 (Severs 7, De La Cruz 6, Hill 4, R. Heeren 3, Harr 3, McNealy 3, Guerrero 2, C. Heeren 2, Spurgeon). Assists– NB 7 (Hawker 3, Shultz, Almelien, Salge, Boos); H-D 19 (Guerrero 5, Spurgeon 3, Severs 2, Sauke 2, Walton, De La Cruz, R. Heeren, C. Heeren, Hill, Harr, McNealy). Steals– NB 7 (Lewis 3, Hawker 2, Almelien, Buss); H-D 24 (Spurgeon 7, Severs 6, De La Cruz 4, C. Heeren 3, Sauke 2, Guerrero, Harr). Blocks – NB 1 (Lewis); H-D 4 (Severs, Spurgeon, R. Heeren, Harr). Total fouls – NB 6, H-D 15.Technical foul– NB bench. Fouled out – None.