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'Cats make mess in McCook's Shootout opener
McCOOK, Neb. -- Sophomore Paxton Terry's driving last-minute three-point play showed there was never any quit in the McCook Bison Thursday night.
If only Scottsbluff had quit passing the ball to Landon Walker or Dru Kuxhausen.
The most powerful 1-2 punch to hit McCook all season clearly made believers of Bison leaders.
Kuxhausen scored 31 points while 6'8" Walker tallied 23 during the Bearcats' 68-49 "East West Shootout" opening victory.
"They're legit. They could definitely be a contender at state (tournament time)," McCook coach Jeremy Yilk said. "Any time we made kind of a run, they had an answer."
Indeed. The Class B No. 3 Bearcats (18-2 record) could have easily been renamed "Buzzkills" throughout Thursday's game.
They quickly quieted the home fans with a 7-0 lead before three minutes had been played.
McCook (7-11 record) missed its first several three-pointers while trying to follow up a huge 64-34 win last weekend.
The Bison didn't score until senior Easton Gillen caught an errant shot underneath their basket then fired a pass to assist Hunter Potthoff's layup.
"Yeah, I don't know with the magnitude of this game if we were a little tigh," Yilk observed. "We needed to have a better start. After that, we played well for the most part."
The Bison briefly found their ignition switch when sophomore Gabe Sehnert and junior Clayton Stevens scored back-to-back baskets.
McCook trailed 15-8 at that point, but the Buzzkills quickly unleashed another 8-1 run to make it 23-9 midway through quarter two.
Walker was simply a beast near the basket. Whenever he got low-post position, McCook's defense was in more trouble than men who forget next week's big holiday.
A Sehnert corner three-pointer could only bring McCook within 32-17 by intermission.
The third quarter was far more competitive as more Bison found their outside shooting eyes.
Potthoff hit two triples while Stevens was another Bison that went deep.
Yet for all their comeback efforts, McCook never got closer than 12 points after halftime.
Scottsbluff opened its largest lead of 25 as Kuxhausen and Walker just kept putting shots through those McCook High School nets.
"Landon and Dru carried us and did a great job of scoring the basketball for us," Buzzkills coach Scott Gullion told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald. "The other guys really picked it up on the defensive end."
Reserves Terry, Morgan Fawver, Hunter Hays, DJ Gross and others showed again how the Bison are building better depth for this season's home stretch.
McCook will need everyone to handle the rest of this East-West Shootout.
Gering (12-8) visits McCook for a 7 p.m. game tonight, and the Bulldogs will likely be annoyed after losing 60-55 at Lexington Thursday evening.
"They (Gering) will give us different looks on defense and a lot of sets on offense," Yilk concluded.
"It will be another good test."
Alliance will also bring a winning record into McCook for a 12:30 p.m. game on Saturday.