The Pioneers faced up against 9C opponent the Turner Tornadoes on Friday evening. To start the contest, the Pioneers would start the game slow through the first few minutes of play, but quickly the defense started getting stops, and the offense started to click; at the end of one-quarter of play, the Pioneers jumped out in front of the Tornadoes 19-11. The hot shooting would continue in the second quarter of the contest as the Pioneers would knock down four threes in the quarter and tally a 29-point quarter jumping the lead out to 25 with a score of 47-22. In the second half, the Pioneers tried to slow the game down and work on their ball movement. The Pioneers would roll on to victory while having 4 Pioneers scoring in double figures. Leading the way for the Pioneers would be Junior Braydon Cline with 26 points, Lane Demontiney would chip in 19, and both Strutz and Snapp would add 11 apiece for Big Sandy. Final score Big Sandy 74 Turner 52.
Saturday, a game that the Pioneers have had circled on the calendar since last year as they would face the Hawks of CJI, a team that ended the Pioneers season the previous year in 2021. It was a game that was full of intensity for the entire 32 minutes of basketball when the Pioneers jumped out early in the first quarter with a 10-2 lead, but four threes from the Hawks would put them right back into the contest and give them the two-point edge after one-quarter of play. Each team’s physical game continues to go back and forth in a hard-fought defensive battle. At the half, the Pioneers would have the slight one-point edge. In the second half, both defenses would not give up much ground as the Hawks would outscore the Pioneers 10-6 in the 3rd quarter, giving them the 34-31 lead going into the final 8 minutes of play. With 3 minutes to go into the contest, a Hawks layup would give them the edge 40-37. A couple of big baskets, one from Snapp and the next from Strutz, would give the edge to the Pioneers by only 1 point with just under 2 minutes to play. A key steal from Demontiney and two clutch free throws from Cline would give them the three-point edge to make it 45-42 in favor of the Pioneers with under a minute left. The Hawks would not go away as a three-point basket from Nate Nelson would knot things up at 45 apiece with 21 seconds in regulation. After a few timeouts from each team, it left 6.1 seconds on the scoreboard. The Pioneers had possession, and a basket would end the game. A sideline out-of-bounds play found Junior Kody Strutz in the short corner for an open jumper, and the shot was nothing but net as the clock hit all zeros, and the Pioneers would squeak out a huge win in a game that was hard-fought till the final buzzer. Kody Strutz led the Pioneers with 26 points and was a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe. Sophomore Wylee Snapp adds 11 points in the win. The Hawks were led in scoring by Bryce Kammerzell with 15, and Karson Pulst had 11. Final Score Big Sandy 47 CJI 45.
