Bison boys can't rally from early deficit in GNAC first-round loss

Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Steve Kodad,McCook Daily Gazette Drew Shields (12) of McCook drives to the basket against North Platte Tuesday in first-round action at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament in North Platte. The Bison boys dropped a 58-50 decision to the Bulldogs

NORTH PLATTE -- Things went downhill for the McCook High School boys early, and it was an uphill battle for the Bison in Tuesday's Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament game against North Platte.

McCook fell behind early and the Bison could never get a rally going en route to a 58-50 loss to the host Bulldogs in a first-round GNAC Tournament game at the North Platte High School gym.

"We can't afford to let teams get out on us like that, to get up on us to where we're playing catch-up for four quarters of basketball," said McCook head coach Tim Garcia. "We kept it close there early. We weren't executing real well on offense. We were giving up way too much on defense.

"The things we didn't do in the first meeting with them we were doing tonight. We weren't as disciplined tonight in the paint defensively, I didn't think."

The Bison had dropped a 44-36 decision at North Platte Dec. 18. In Tuesday's rematch, McCook fell behind 10-3 late in the first quarters and the Bison would get no closer than the 12-8 deficit at the end of the opening period.

North Platte guard Trey Moore scored eight unanswered points, including a pair of 3-point bombs, to boost the Bulldogs to a 22-10 lead early in the second quarter. The hosts stretched the lead to 34-21 at halftime, as the Bison converted just 27.3 percent of their field goal tries (6 for 22), and North Platte shot 45.8 percent (11 for 24) in the opening half.

McCook had several brief rallies in the second half. Dustin Parde and Connor Larson each hit a pair of free throws, and Larson followed with a drive through the lane for a field goal, as the Bison the deficit to 54-46 with just over two minutes left.

After North Platte missed the front end of two consecutive free throw situations, Larson hit one of two charity shots to get McCook within seven points with 1:27 remaining. The Bulldogs then scored four unanswered points at the line to help ice the win.

A good lesson

Coach Garcia said Tuesday's contest will be a good lesson for the Bison.

"This is a game that we learn from," he said. "Probably the best thing to come out of this game is at about two minutes and 36 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Connor Larson comes over to me and he says, 'You know, we can't wait till now to start playing like this.' Because the way we were playing in that fourth quarter, when we were playing that catch up ball, we were playing fairly well. He was exactly right.

"As a team, that's what I told them in the locker room. We can't pick and choose when we're going to play. If you're on the court, it's got to be 100 percent all-out and that's the only way it can be. So we'll grow from this game, we'll learn from it, become a better team for it."

Parde's big game

Parde, McCook's 6-6 senior center, had a strong game with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Parde made all six of his free throw attempts. Mark Nichols, 6-4 senior forward, added 14 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 effort beyond the 3-point line.

Moore led North Platte with 25 points, including four shots from 3-point range in the first half. The Bison held the sophomore guard to five points in the second half, when McCook tightened its defensive effort.

"He had a great first half, we probably should have come out and jumped him sooner instead of waiting so long," Garcia said. "He had a great game, you can't take anything away from him. He did what he had to do, and even towards the end of the game, they put the ball in his hands and they let him handle the ball, and we couldn't stop him, we couldn't trap him, we couldn't get the ball out of his hands."

For the game, North Platte shot 47.7 percent from the floor, hitting 21 of 44 field goals. McCook was 16 of 41 from the field for 39 percent. The Bison committed 18 turnovers to just eight for North Platte.

Five-day layoff

All the Nebraska prep winter sports teams were coming off a mandated five-day layoff over Christmas. The Bison had their first team workouts Monday coming off the break, and Coach Garcia thought his team would be ready to play Tuesday.

"I thought we handled (the break) well right up until the first quarter. That told me that maybe we didn't handle it so well," he said. "We can never afford to get down on a team double-digits in the first quarter. We can't afford to get down and play catch up ball at all, at any point in the game, let alone in the first quarter. When the ball went up in the air, I don't think we were mentally ready to go, and that's something we have to work on as a coaching staff and as a team, making sure we are mentally ready to go.

"I'm not going to use the moratorium as an excuse because North Platte had to sit out the same amount of days as we had to, and it looked like they were ready to go. That's something we'll have to address and have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The Bison faced Hastings in a GNAC consolation semifinal contest Wednesday afternoon. Results from that game were too late for the Gazette publication deadline. A story and photos will appear in Thursday's Sports section and here on the Gazette on-line edition.

Hastings lost to Kearney 63-36 in another GNAC first-round game Tuesday. Garcia said the Tigers are a tough, physical team similar to North Platte.

Thursday finals

The Bison will play again Thursday in conference tournament finals, either for fifth or seventh place. If McCook loses to Hastings, the Bison would play for seventh place Thursday at 12:45 p.m. against the Columbus-Lexington loser. If McCook beats Hastings, The Bison would face the Columbus-Lexington winner Thursday at 4:15 p.m. for fifth place.

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