Pioneers Beat Camels and Snow

The Pioneers traveled to Campbell County tonight for a pre-snow game with the Camels. The JV game was cancelled and the varsity game was moved up to 6:00 in order to beat the impending winter storm. SK was without the services of Senior Josh Hurd who sat out with a shoulder injury. For whatever reason though, the Pioneers seemed to break out of their scoring slump, in which they had not scored over 54 points in their last 4 games, and bested the Camels by a final of 87-84.

The first quarter was fast and furious as Campbell County jumped out to a 23-17 lead. SK came racing back and was able to take a 45-43 lead into half-time on a Hester to Elbert alley-oop/tip-in under the basket. SK was able to extend the lead to 8 in the second half as Hester and Layne knocked down shots from the outside. The Pioneers led by 5 at the end of the third 69-64.

SK put four players in the scoring column with double figures led by Josh Elbert who finished with 23, 19 of those coming in the first half. Although the senior forward received more defensive pressure in the second half, Elbert was able to knock down two free throws with just 6 seconds left to extend the Pioneer lead to 3. Hester posted his first double figure night since returning from foot surgery and scored 19 on the strength of 5 for 9 three point shooting. Hester also had 5 assists 4 boards and 3 steals. Perhaps the player with the timeliest basket was Junior Zach Layne who chipped in 17 points after sitting out the Shelby game due to illness. The junior converted a 4 point play with just over a minute to go to give SK the lead after they had just fallen behind by a point. SK led by as many as 8 in the 4th quarter but some untimely turnovers let the Camels back in the game. After converting the 4 point play, Layne then came down on SK’s next possession and was fouled and converted both foul shots. Without Hurd in the line-up, Coach Steiner turned to Brandon Maegley who nearly ended up with a double double by scoring 10 points and posting 9 rebounds. Charge Kohrs scored 9 before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Nathan Ponzer had some strong minutes off the bench before getting shook up (running into a solid screen) as the junior point had 5 assists and three steals. For the game, SK hit 50% from the field on 31/62 shooting. The Pioneer bench outscored Campbell County’s by a 24-12 margin.

The Pioneer JV team is in the NKAC finals this week against Boone. The varsity team hosts Scott at the Joe in their next home game on the 16th.

Pics from tonight...

Zach Layne knocks down the three, gets knocked down and then signals for the three pointer as he converted the 4 point play.


Josh Elbert with 23 points on the night.


Kohrs with the board.


Maegley with 10 points and 9 boards.


Hester back in action.



Zach Layne gets left wide open to knock down the trey.


Eric Hopkins knocks down the bucket after the drive.


Nate Ponzer dished out 5 assists before getting leveled.