Morenci boys basketball gets much-needed win
Morenci’s boys basketball team went a month without a victory.
Tuesday’s 41-40 win over Sand Creek couldn’t have come soon enough.
“It’s been a struggle,” Bulldog coach Jed Hall said. “We’ve had a couple of players out, we’ve had a couple of pauses due to COVID … We just haven’t had any consistency.”
The Bulldogs escaped with the win over the Aggies. Jacob Reincke took a pass from Landon Mansfield and hit a jumper with about 2:20 remaining in the game to give Morenci a 41-40 lead. A late turnover gave Sand Creek life, but Aggies’ leading scorer Tylan Waltz narrowly missed a jumper.
“They ran a play for him, a pick-and-roll, and he got free,” Hall said. “He got a good look at the basket, but we played pretty good defense on him. We had a hand up.”
Hall praised Reincke and Mansfield – and just about everyone else who played – for their work on slowing down Waltz. He came into the game averaging well over 20 points a game and has had two games of 40-points plus this season but was limited to 15 points.
“That’s what we talked about coming in,” Hall said. “He’s a good player. They play hard and when he gets the ball he can shoot from anywhere in the gym. If you don’t have a hand up, he’ll shoot it.”
Hall said one of his assistants threw out the goal of keeping Waltz to 15 points before the game.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” he said.
Sand Creek led by four after the first quarter and the two teams went into halftime tied 18-18.
Braylon Stover finished with 18 points, Reincke nine and Bryson Bachelder eight for Morenci (4-5, 1-3 TCC).
It’s been an eventful season for Hall and the Bulldogs. They started the season 3-1 before Christmas. They lost both games coming off the break, then missed a week due to COVID outbreaks. Hall said it is the new reality of what coaches and players have to deal with.
“Before COVID, teams would work at getting better, every game, every practice,” he said. “You could see your team improving. With COVID, it seems like you are regrouping every practice or every couple of games. It’s tough to keep things moving. You never had to deal with that before.”
Tuesday’s game was also eventful for another reason. Hall’s wife, Kristin, gave birth to daughter Navy K. just before Christmas. She attended her first game Tuesday, taking in the Aggie-Bulldog rivalry firsthand.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Morenci boys basketball gets much-needed win
