MAGNET COVE -- Bismarck used a big third quarter to finish burying Spring Hill in the first round of the Magnet Cove senior basketball tournament Monday night.
The Lions put up 18 points in the third quarter while allowing the Bears to pick up three to take a 49-32 lead to go into the final eight minutes. Spring Hill outscored the Lions in the final period, but it was not enough as Bismarck took the 62-47 win.
"I thought we got off to a slow start defensively," said Bismarck head coach Mark Hamby. "They had a lot to do with that. They were making good plays and making shots. We made a couple of adjustments, and I feel like we did a lot better in the second half with our defense."
Bismarck's offense looked to get rolling quickly as Sawyer Hardage sank a trey with 48 seconds off the clock for the first points of the game, but the Bears recovered with Payton Massanelli draining a three with 16 seconds left in the quarter to leave the score knotted at 18.
The Lions were able to edge Spring Hill in the second period, taking a 31-29 lead into the break.
Colton McMullin led the Lions with 26 points including 12 of 17 from the free throw line. Dylan Clayton added 13 with six rebounds and three assists, Hardage had 11 points with four rebounds, two steals and an assist and Jayden Howell nine with four rebounds, five assists and two steals.
"He's one of our better outside shooters," Hamby said of Hardage, who hit three of the Lions' five treys. "We've got three or four that shoot it outside pretty well. It'd be nice to get them all going on the same night sometime. We've got Dylan inside; he gives us a nice presence inside. I told them at halftime, 'We played soft as a bag of marshmallows,' and they responded a little bit better in the second half."
Massanelli led the Bears with 14 points and three rebounds, Brady Whatley added 12 with seven rebounds, four steals and two assists and Layne Anderson added 11 with two rebounds.
Bismarck will face host Magnet Cove Thursday at 8:30 p.m. with Spring Hill facing Cutter Morning Star at 5:30 p.m. tonight.
Magnet Cove-Ark. Christian Academy
Autumn Efird and Lily Barber combined for 27 as the Magnet Cove Lady Panthers rolled to a 43-21 victory over Arkansas Christian Academy Monday night in the opening game of the Magnet Cove senior basketball tournament.
The Lady Panthers dominated three of the four quarters, allowing the Lady Knights to cut the deficit to 23-14 at the end of the third. Magnet Cove outscored the Lady Knights by 13 in the final period to set the final.
"I preach to them all the time that we've got to get our bigs involved inside, get our inside game to establish our outside game," said Magnet Cove head coach Jeremy Hall. "If not, the outside game is hard to establish because everybody just spaces out on you. We haven't done a good job lately of getting the ball inside and letting our girls go to work on the inside. Toward the end of the second half, we started clicking, letting our bigs just go to work and finishing. They did a great job bringing it home for us."
Magnet Cove took an 8-2 lead in the opening quarter before stretching its lead to 21-7 at the break.
"We started out real slow," said Hall. "We weren't really sure of ourselves. These girls have never really been in that position, just to go in and play like that. I thought later in the game they started to pick it up and realized, we've got to go get it done. I had seniors step up to get some huge shots that got everybody going. We got our inside game established with Lily Barber, which is huge. Once our guards kind of started to realize to get our inside game established and feed off of that, everything kind of started clicking."
Efird led the Lady Panthers with 14 points and four rebounds, and Barber added 13 with seven rebounds. Alexis Hodges led the team with six rebounds.
"She has the ability to shoot from outside," Hall said of Efird. "She can finish down low. She's a really, really hard worker, one of the hardest workers I have. Toward the end there, she would get open shots and was hesitant to shoot. Our biggest thing is just getting her confidence because she can shoot the ball. A lot of my girls can shoot the ball; they just don't have the confidence to shoot, so I'm hoping that as the year goes on and they start getting that confidence, it starts clicking for them.
Cassidy Goddard led the Lady Knights with 11 points, 11 rebounds and three steals, Michah Lyman adding five with four rebounds and four steals and Abby Prickett five points and three rebounds.
Magnet Cove will face Spring Hill tonight at 7 p.m. with Arkansas Christian Academy playing Thursday at 7 p.m. against the loser of tonight's Cutter Morning Star-Centerpoint game.
Sports on 11/29/2017