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Risco stuns Bernie
BERNIE -- It was obvious from the beginning who the two fan favorites were in Friday's game between Bernie and Risco. The game began with ovations for Risco's Luke Carter and Bernie's Chad Wooldridge. Wooldridge would foul out in the middle of fourth quarter, giving Carter the chance for a final ovation, and he took it.
Carter scored three points in the final ten seconds to give the Tigers a 63-58 win over the hometown Mules.
"We wanted this game really bad," said Risco head coach Brandon Blankenship. "They beat us by 10 the first time we played, and we felt like we could play with them then. Last night we went to Gideon and watched them play and the guys decided then that we could do this. Also our crowd support has been great and it was even better tonight. It always helps to have the crowd behind us."
For Bernie, the loss was a bitter pill to swallow.
"We just got out-played tonight," said Bernie head coach Morris Karnes. "We were still celebrating our emotional game with Gideon last night. We had a meeting after school today and I warned them to be ready and they weren't. Risco just out-hustled us, out-rebounded us and did smarter things on the floor. We couldn't even execute out of bounds plays right tonight."
During the first half both teams kept the score close as Bernie never got up more than five and Risco never led by more than seven, and the Tigers held a 33-28 lead at the half.
Wooldridge came on strong in the third period by hitting a three with 2:40 left and two free throws, but with 41.1 seconds left he picked up his fourth foul, sending him to the bench.
Sophomore Dustin Patterson hit two jumpers to open the final quarter for Risco and give them a quick 49-44 lead.
"That's his shot," said Blankenship of Patterson. "He hits those 10 or 12 foot jumpers and those two were key for us tonight."
Bernie's Ashton Rodgers answered with two buckets of his own to cut the Tiger lead back to one.
Risco opened the game up after Wooldridge fouled out, but with the Tigers up five with 1:41 left, Dill hit a trey for the Mules to cut Risco's lead to only a pair.
After the 3-pointer, senior Wesley Owens nailed a layup for Bernie to tie the game at 58.
With Bernie's big man off the court, Risco pounded the ball into the post and Kyle Carlisle hit a basket to give the Tigers a two-point lead.
"We basically have two guys on the floor that have a lot of different ways of scoring, and when you take even one of them away, it really hurts," said Karnes. "We have to be smart enough not to pick up the dumb fouls. A couple of the fouls that we had on those guys, there was no sense in it. To me, that's not being focused."
On the next inbounds play, Carter stole the ball and was fouled by Brandon Shipman. It was Shipman's fourth. Carter hit the second free throw to put the Tigers up three.
"Luke (Carter) really took over the game for us tonight," said Blankenship. "He is a very vocal guy on the court and he is the guy that everyone looks to for leadership. Between him and Greg (Landers) we have a very good one-two punch."
The Mules had a chance to tie the game with a three, but Dill dribbled out of bounds with 11.2 seconds left. The costly mistake put the ball back in the hands of the Tigers and eventually into senior Greg Landers' hands.
Landers was fouled and hit both his freebies to ice Risco's five point victory.
"I am really proud of the guys tonight," said Blankenship. "We shot free throws well tonight (15-19) and that's one thing that we really need to do right."
"Down the stretch I think that the two games that we play Holcomb have really helped us to turn around and we play them again on Monday night. That will be the third time in nine days that we will have played them."
Bernie will travel to Woodland on Tuesday.
"We didn't execute the small things tonight," said Karnes. "We hit the ceiling with the ball one time tonight and Risco just outplayed us. We just didn't come to play. We don't have enough talent to come not ready to play."