SK PIONEER SPORTS: Offense Stymied at Cooper in SK Boys L

Away games for both the girls and boys team as the girls cheese wagon headed to Campbell County and New Cath while the boys team headed across Mt. Zion Road to Cooper high school. I took in the boys game tonight since I’ll be at the Joe tomorrow night for the girls game versus Brossart, assuming that the white death doesn’t dump on us. Girls come out on top of New Cath 51-50.

One thing that was apparent before the game started; SK was giving up a lot of size to Cooper. That didn’t seem to matter early as SK jumped out to a 11-6 lead behind some nice shooting as they hit 3 treys in the first 4 minutes. Unfortunately, that’s the highlight of the SK O for the night. Once trailing by 5, Cooper would call a TO and then watch the Neers go on a 4 minute scoring drought. Score after 1 all tied at 11.

Cooper would take complete the 8-0 run and take the lead at 14-11. SK would not get a point until 4:22 of the second, an 8 minute scoring absence.

I'm not sure if it was bad offense or good defense, but the Neers had serious trouble scoring. Coach Steiner used several players and got some scoring late in the conclusion of the period. SK tied the game at 23 but Cooper got the last points of the quarter to lead 25-23. Cooper exposed SK's size as foul trouble forced Steiner to have Barnes guarding the 6'5 Jag post player. SK struggled on the offensive end and got beat up on the defensive end.

SK's first possessions of the second half consisted of an air ball and a turnover as they continued to struggle making shots. They would go another 4 minutes without scoring (seeing a pattern here) and were now looking at a double digit deficit, 36-26. SK would get a little push at the end to trail 38-30.

I’ll be honest. The fourth quarter was hard to watch. The game had double fouls, intentional fouls, multiple players fouling out and terrible throw shooting. SK was dismal from the line going what I heard was 15 for 30 from the line. They would cut the lead to 7 with a minute and half to go but couldn’t get a key basket or make foul shots to get over the hump. Final score on the scoreboard 60-48, final score on KHSAA 60-47.

Hard hat tonight goes to Riley Barnes again. Barnes was often battling the post on defense pushing, pulling, getting tagged. He ended up on the floor, on top of someone or pulling someone down. He was aggravating and at one point drew and intentional foul/swing from a Cooper player. I’ll say he’ll be a little sore tomorrow!

SK will try and bounce back from the L on Tuesday night against Campbell County at the Joe. This will be the last home game of the season and will also be senior night. Come out and support this whopping class of 8 seniors.

Barnes getting position.