Senior, Rusty Gasvoda (2) working defense during the Sunburst game. Big Sandy comes awa with the win 74-23.
Friday night was all Big Sandy Pioneers with a win of 74-23. While the boys came out strong against Valier Panthers, Valier showed some promise in defense and ball pressure. Still, Big Sandy prevailed by breaking that defense with great ball movement and penetration to the basket for some easy buckets. The Pioneers pushed the ball up the floor and had some great passes. Isaac Pedraza, a senior and new Pioneer, had some great drives and buckets. Kody Strutz making his way back onto the floor helped with the flow of the whole team.
The Panthers had some great looks at the basket but struggled against Big Sandy's half-court defense and ball pressure. The Pioneers came out strong by crashing the boards on both ends of the floor, allowing them to push the ball and get some easy buckets.
Saturday night was another great game for the Big Sandy Pioneers against North Toole/Sunburst Refiners. They won 63-25. The Pioneers started in a 3/4 press, and the Refiners struggled with getting the ball past the first line of defenders. After a timeout and adjustments, North Toole broke down the press a bit with some great quick looks at the basket but missed some easy opportunities. Big Sandy had another great game on the glass, on both ends of the floor, getting 32 rebounds, allowing them easy putbacks and fast break opportunities. With some great passing from Kody Strutz, who ended the game with 5 assists, strong shooting from Isaac Pedraza, 19 points, and Braydon Cline with 18. Snapp led the team with 8 rebounds. Big Sandy had 8 steals and 11 turnovers. The Big Sandy Pioneers shot 51% from the field.
The whole team got playing minutes this weekend. Coach Rhett Simanton saying, "We had a great start to the season and really played well together. I hope to keep it going."
Coach Ryne LaBuda said, "We had a good weekend. We got some guys back who could get some time on the floor. We installed a couple of new schemes in practice and were able to see them in-game action. The guys executed them well, and hopefully, we can build on that going into this next week of games.
I watched NFHS, with very little information from the network, including the score. These stats come from the Big Sandy Basketball program.
