They may have had Pioneers on their jersey, but you could have mistaken them for the Bombers.
Simon Kenton knocked down nine 3-pointers in the first half on their way to a 54-34 victory over Walton-Verona on Friday night at Joe Stark Memorial Gymnasium in Independence.
“They did a great job of attacking our zone,” Bearcats coach Mike Hester said. “Guys that we tried to run off the line, but then there were a couple guys we were going to live with shooting, they made some shots.”
While the ending of the game was marred by an altercation on a hard foul by Simon Kenton’s Tysin Weaver to Bearcats’ Aaron Gutman, the Pioneers had the game well in hand before it. Two ejections were handed out to Walton-Verona’s Adam Gutman and Billy Holt for leaving the bench, two technical fouls were given and Gutman had to head to the hospital for further evaluation as he went head first into the padded wall behind the basket.
PHOTOS: Simon Kenton/Walton-Verona slideshow (provided by Charles Bolton)
What transpired before hand was an offensive masterclass from the Pioneers in the game’s first 16 minutes. They needed just 11 attempts to hit the nine 1st half triples.
“Sometimes the ball dies in our hands a little bit too much. Tonight it was not, the ball was popping,” Pioneers coach Trent Steiner said. “When you get the ball moving and the shot, everything is on time. We took ownership of what we had done wrong on Tuesday against Ryle and moved the rock and got the ball where it needed to go.”
Jordan Bach was the biggest beneficiary of making the extra pass, knocking down four first half triples and finishing with a game-high 18 points.
“Just ball movement and trusting your teammates,” Bach said. “Got to get the ball moving and we passed up good shots for great shots.”
Simon Kenton (15-6, 3-0) hit four treys in the first for a 14-8 advantage and five in the second, the last one from Will Scobee in the corner before the halftime horn to make it 33-18 at the break.
“It’s contagious,” Steiner said. “If you pay attention to what happens in games, we always talk about it’s okay to miss shots, just everybody can’t miss all at the same night. It’s crazy how that works, when one dude gets hot, then everybody else starts feeling the fire off of him.”
Walton-Verona (12-9, 0-1) just couldn’t get much going offensively. Gutman, who came in scoring 23.1 points per game, was held to seven on the night. The Bearcats average 58.4 points per game as a team, 25 below their average on Friday night.
“Aaron is a great player, but we wanted to put 10 eyes on him. Ten eyes all the time, he’s that dominant of a player so we had 10 eyes on him all the time,” Steiner said.
The Bearcats never got closer than 12 in the second half.
The win gives the Pioneers the No. 1 seed for the 32nd District tournament in late February. The Bearcats still have contests with Grant County on Feb. 4 and Williamstown on Feb. 11. They may be a little short-handed against the Braves on Tuesday, Adam Gutman and Billy Holt looking at a two-game suspension for their ejections while Aaron Gutman’s health will also be of concern.
“We just struggled all night to score, couldn’t get an open look,” Hester said. “A lot of it was on us, but a lot of credit to them too. Their 2-2-1 zone causes problems. We have to do a better job getting to the middle and getting to the shots we’re capable of making. This just puts a little bump in the road and we’ll fight to get the two or the three seed.”
Aiden Kerns led the Bearcats with nine points.
Simon Kenton has won 13 of their last 15, shaking off a Tuesday loss to Ryle.
After Bach’s 18, five others had at least six points on the night. Jay Bilton had eight points, Eddie Marx and Bode Stone with seven apiece, Bray Bilton and Will Scobee with six.
They face Campbell County in Claryville on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
