Bulldogs Crush Patriots after Extended Break

Eleven inches of snow fired up the Bulldog girls basketball team on Thursday, January 10. An extended winter break gave them the energy they needed to topple the Truman Patriots 64-23.

Ryleigh Van Emmerik scored 14 points on the night, including four 3-point shots.

The Bulldogs came out like a punch in the mouth with a pair of 3-point buckets by Brooke Paalhar and Ryleigh Van Emmerik. Truman’s Reagan Thomas answered back with a 3-point shot, but Paalhar, Van Emmerik and Maggie Lakin went on a 15-0 run to boost the Bulldogs’ lead. The first quarter came to an end quickly after a few points by Truman. The Bulldogs led, 21-9.

There was more of the same in the second quarter from Paalhar, Van Emmerik and Lakin. They ran up the score 36-13 with the help of Mallyrie Schwab-Wetzel, Jocelyn Lincoln, and Kennedi Casey.

“We prepared based on film a lot of 2-3 zone and they ran absolutely zero possessions of 2-3 zone,” said Coach Troy Resler after the game. “The positive is they ran a 3-2 [zone] which just changes our look on offense a little bit, but the concepts of getting paint touches, keeping the ball moving, all the keys we talked about, it's still there no matter what zone they ran.”

One of the keys to the Bulldogs’ offensive success was the constant ball movement and good defense leading to good offense. The Bulldogs were able to get good looks after skip-passes and playing in the zone.

Kearney dominated in the second half with offensive help from Addie Taylor, Morgan Pennington and Addi Smith. Ryleigh Van Emmerik and Kennedi Casey chipped in with big 3-point shots in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run and the defense held the Patriots to just 2 points in the quarter.

Kearney spread out the scoring: Brooke Paalhar led the Bulldogs with 20 points and Ryleigh Van Emmerik scored 14. Maggie Lakin and Kennedi Casey each made 8 points, Mallyrie Schwab-Wetzel scored 5, Jocelyn Lincoln had 3 and Addie Taylor, Addi Smith and Morgan Pennington each scored two.

This win brings the Bulldog girls’ record to 3-5 on the season.

The Bulldogs are back with boys and girls basketball all next week during the Kearney Classic basketball tournament. KPGZ will broadcast most of the games during the tournament. Watch KPGZ social media pages throughout the week for broadcast times.

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story.

Boys Execute First Time Win over Park Hill South

The Kearney Bulldogs boys basketball team fought their winter break blues with a win over Class 6 Park Hill South Panthers on Friday, Jan. 3. It was an exciting game as the Bulldogs came back from a 7-point deficit to win, 61-53.

The Bulldogs have been 0-7 to this point against the Panthers. Park Hill South beat Kearney by 12 points here at home in 2015.

Tre Smith led the team with 23 points for the Bulldogs.

It was a tale of quarters as the Bulldogs held their own against Park Hill South and won the first quarter, 14-11. In the second quarter, the Panthers started chipping away at the Bulldog lead and late in the quarter went on a 9-0 run.

Park Hill South owned the third quarter, scoring 20 points in the quarter. The Bulldogs came back in the fourth quarter and scored 21 points thanks to Tre Smith's relentless defense on Park Hill South guards as he had multiple runouts late in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers went in and out from zone to man-to-man defense enough times that it confused the Bulldogs for a little bit, but Kearney was able to get some defensive rebounds in that second-half that weren't there in the first half. Aden Sallee, Drew Wilson and Ty Smith did a fantastic job on the defensive glass in the second half and kept Park Hill South from getting second opportunities.

The Bulldogs had an amazing scoring night. Tre Smith led the team with 23 points. Drew Wilson hit his season average and scored 13. Brad Doll made the scorebook with 10 points and was especially effective with big free-throws down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Aden Sallee scored 9 points and Brock Scott, Ty Smith and Carter Brock each made two.

This brings the Bulldogs’ record to 6-3 on the season. Their next home game will be during the Kearney Classic Tournament, January 13-17.

KPGZ News – Brian Watts contributed to this story.

Bulldog Boys Crush Smithville on the Court

The Kearney Bulldogs boys basketball ball squad took care of business on Friday, Dec. 20, as they dominated over their bitter rivals from eight miles west of Kearney. The Bulldogs started their winter break with a statement win over the Smithville Warriors, 60-35.

The Bulldog defense frustrated Smithville throughout the game starting in the first quarter where they only allowed the Warriors to score 6 points. The Kearney offense was able to rack up 17 points in a great team effort as Aden Sallee, Drew Wilson, Brad Doll, Andrew Way, Brock Scott and Angelo Donze saw bucket after bucket fall in their favor.

“Our goal going into this game too was to win each 8-minute quarter, and that was our goal after each quarter,” Head Coach Dillon Starzl said after the game. “We started as 0-0 every time and the goal was to win every quarter and if you do that, you're gonna win the game.”

Drew Wilson Scored 25 points against Smithville.

The Bulldogs were able to keep the pressure on the Warriors throughout the game and Smithville was unable to come close to catching up with Drew Wilson and the Kearney Bulldogs. Wilson was the leading scorer during the game. He scored 25 points on the night, but that wasn’t a game-high score for him.

“My career high is 27 points; I had 27 against Platte County last year, and I had 27 again against Excelsior,” Wilson said. “I don't care too much about my stats. As long as I leave the game knowing I gave it 100% and I left it all out there I'm happy.”

Other top scorers in the game were Aden Sallee who made 11 points, Brad Doll had 9, and Andrew Way scored 7 points. Other Bulldogs who made it in the scorebook were Tre Smith, Angelo Donze, Brock Scott, and Ty Smith.

You can hear the full game replay, commentary and interviews on demand at 1027kearneymo.com/podcasts.

KPGZ Sports – Brian Watts contributed to this story.