Sturgis runs away from Bronson, 59-34
The first quarter was solid for the Bronson boys on Monday night.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, the final three quarters did not result the same. Sturgis, hosting Bronson for a non-league game, overcame a first quarter deficit and ran away with a 59-34 win. The 59 points scored by the Trojans was the most in a single game all season.
“Basketball is a game of runs, but I thought we played hard for 32 minutes tonight,” Sturgis coach Keith Kurowski said. “We played with a lot of toughness and effort tonight, especially in that second half.”
Bronson was knocking down shots early in the game. Sturgis built a bit of an edge in the opening minutes of the first quarter, but the Vikings stabilized themselves. Aden Hathaway helped lead the Vikings to eventually grabbing the lead over Sturgis and finishing with 17 points in the opening quarter.
Bronson’s lead was 17-12 after the opening eight minutes. But in the final three quarters of play, Bronson only matched the 17 points it scored in that opener.
“They ended the quarter with a nice run and I had some choice words for the guys in that timeout,” Kurowski said of the time between the opening two quarters. “I told them we had to lock in. We went back to an all man-to-man defense and had a nice second quarter. We got up double digits, got some nice stops and forced them into difficult shots. We controlled the boards as well.”
Bronson scored only six points in the second quarter. The Viking lead, which was five points after the opening eight minutes, disappeared as Sturgis had its highest-scoring quarter of the night with 22 points in the second.A Gibson Cary triple as time expired in the second put the Trojans up 34-23 entering the locker room for halftime.
“I thought if we had a nice 8-to-10 point cushion at halftime, we could build on that in the second half,” Kurowski said. “I thought we wore them down. We matched up well in terms of athleticism, size and strength with them.”
Nothing seemed to be going right for Bronson.
“We’re a team, we rely on the jump shot a lot and if we’re knocking down shots wer are good,” Bronson coach Damien Loveless said. “If we’re not, then we struggle as w team. That effort tonight was not good enough for us in a big game.”
SHS more than doubled up Bronson in that third quarter, 13-5. In the fourth, SHS doubled up the Vikings again at 12-6, playing with a comfortable lead the entire final eight minutes.
Sturgis had five players score in the game, which provided them with more balance than in some games.
“I loved our balance tonight, we had some guys right on the edge of breaking into double figures,” Kurowski said. “We had contributions from a number of guys and that was good to see.”
Jacob Thompson led the Trojans with 26 points, he made 4-of-5 free throws on the night.
For the game, SHS knocked down 5-of-8 from the stripe.
Gavyn Moore connected for nine points, Cary scored seven while both Grady Miller and Ian Smith scored six points. Hunter Kosmerick tossed in five as well for the Trojans.
Sturgis improves to 4-8 with the victory and the Trojans have now won two consecutive games for the first time all season. They’ve also piled up three wins in the last four overall.
Bronson dropped to 5-8 on the year. The Vikings have alternated wins and losses the last four games overall.In Monday’s loss, Hathaway led with 14 points. Miles Losinski added nine while Kamron Brackett threw in six. Sayler Wotta scored three points, Ashton Wells added two.
Bronson was 8-of-15 from the foul line. The Vikings did not hit a single 3-pointer in the contest.
Bronson travels to take on Constantine on Wednesday. Sturgis will head to Plainwell on Friday.
In the junior varsity game, Sturgis beat Bronson 63-44.
Brock Fergison led the Trojans with a 30-point game. Bronson was led by Keegan Krebs with 17.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Sturgis runs away from Bronson, 59-34
