.jpg)
The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team split a pair of Pioneer District games last week, cruising to a 77-41 home win over Craig County last Tuesday before coming up short 63-52 at Narrows on Friday.
With the victory over Craig, the Fighting Blues (9-7 overall, 5-2 district) completed a sweep of the regular-season series. When the teams met on Dec. 13 in New Castle, PM won 71-43.
The Rockets cut an early deficit to 23-12 early in the second quarter, but Brayden Holdren hit a 3-pointer to start a 16-0 run for the Blues, stretching PM’s lead to 39-12. The Blues led 47-14 going into the break.
Evan Cook scored the first points of the third quarter as the Blues continued to dominate. A John Snider free throw after a successful shot put the Blues up, 58-22. The Blues took a 61-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Rockets weren’t able to close the gap in the fourth quarter, and PM continued to pile on the points to close the game. Braedyn Houck made the only 3-pointer of the second half to help PM to the finish line.
Cook led the Blues with 17 points and five assists, while Nathan Glass added 16 points. Snider contributed nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.
“We shared the ball well, especially in transition,” said PM head coach Tyler Kerr. “That transition is where we score a lot of our buckets.”
Kerr highlighted the lack of turnovers as his biggest takeaway from the game. “We only had five turnovers in the whole game,” he said. “When the score goes up, it’s easy to get careless with the ball, but we didn’t do that.”
The Blues are only averaging 12 turnovers a game this season. Craig ended the week at 2-11 overall and 2-4 in the district.
NHS 63, PM 52
Pioneer District leader Narrows defeated visiting PM 63-52 on Friday night to complete a sweep of the regular-season series. When the teams met on Dec. 15 in Buena Vista, Narrows eked out a 50-46 win.
Proud of his team’s performance in the rematch against the Green Wave (14-2, 9-0), Kerr said, “Our team was very locked in. We executed our game plan and played well defensively.”
Kerr said the plan was to force someone other than Narrows guard Kolier Pruett to beat them. “We wanted to make someone other than their best player beat us, and they had some guys step up to do that,” he said.
Pruett led the Green Wave with 24, sinking three 3-pointers, while Aidan McGlothlin scored 17 points, making five triples, and Levi Smith had 12 points.
Cook led the Blues with 22 points, Houck added 10 points, and Snider chipped in nine.
The Blues struggled with their shooting, making just 31.25 percent (15-of-48) of their shots from the field, including just 18.5 percent (5-of-27) from three-point range.
