Boys Basketball: Suring dominates from start to finish in road win

Eagles’ offense picks apart zone
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

BOWLER — The Suring High School boys basketball put together one of its best games of the season in a nonconference matchup against Bowler on Friday, taking control early on and rolling to a 77-43 win.

Suring had the first four points of the game before Bowler answered with the next five points, prompting Suring coach Chris Geniesse to call timeout at the 15:41 mark of the first half.

While he hoped the team would start driving the ball to the basket to attack Bowler’s zone defense, it was the Eagles’ outside shooting that took over after quick, accurate passes created plenty of open looks.

Suring senior Duncan Breed hit a 3-pointer on the team’s possession out of the timeout, spurring a 17-0 run by the visitors.

Senior Bryce Losurdo followed with a fastbreak layup before senior Jayden Geniesse and Losurdo hit 3-pointers. Suring’s next two field goals came near the rim, as senior Dequez Sepulveda converted a shot after grabbing an offensive rebound and senior Ethan Hischke stole the ball before laying it in.

After a Bowler timeout, Sepulveda knocked down another shot to up Suring’s lead to 21-5 a little more than five minutes into the game.

“I think a big reason why we’re as good against zone (defense) as we are is because at the start of the season, we weren’t good at man (to-man defense) so I went zone and we’ve seen how we’ve got beat in zone. I slowly steered away from it because zone is a scary thing to play if you don’t move well (on defense),” said Chris Geniesse. “I think we learned ball movement, having a guy high post, having a guy short corner and just moving the ball as fast as you can because the zone can’t keep up with you. Us getting beat running zone made us just know how to play against it.”

While Suring’s offense wasn’t able to keep up its fast pace, its defense locked up Bowler, which allowed the visitors to run away with the game.

Suring held Bowler scoreless for over six minutes on its 17-0 run. The hosts scored their next six points in a three-minute span before the Eagles allowed just three points in the final six minutes of the half.

“Our defense has been getting better and better every game,” said Hischke. “We have been playing great help defense and that carried into this game as well.”

Losurdo led a 3-point barrage that helped Suring extend its lead to 24. Losurdo hit three triples over a two-minute span to cap his 16-point first half.

Losurdo hit three more 3-pointers in the second half to help Suring ease to the win.

“This season, we’ve had a lot of games that we’ve come really close to winning, even losing two at the buzzer,” said Losurdo. “Being able to come into a game and control the tempo the entire game was a huge confidence booster that hopefully carries forward the rest of our season.”

Losurdo’s hot-shooting night was the standout performance to a balanced Suring offensive attack that saw 10 different players score.

Hischke converted five field goals and a pair of free throws to post 12 points. Sophomore Taron Haak tallied 11 points off the bench, with 10 of those coming in a four-minute span early in the second half.

Sepulveda finished the contest with 10 points while also disrupting multiple Bowler shots in the paint.

The win was Suring’s third in the last four games, with the lone loss coming on a buzzer beater. All of Suring’s wins have come since Dec. 19 after starting the season 0-5.

“We’ve been on a really good roll lately. I think we could be a scary team down the stretch — I’m really excited for the second half of the season,” said Chris Geniesse.

Suring 41 36 — 77

Bowler 15 28 — 43

Suring (77): Jeremy Hensel 2-3 2, Bryce Losurdo 0-0 25, Jayden Geniesse 0-0 5, Ethan Hischke 2-2 12, Gavin Fredenburgh 0-0 2, Duncan Breed 0-0 3, Taron Haak 2-3 11, Dequez Sepulveda 0-0 10, Mason Ferrell 0-0 2, Leo Taylor 1-4 5.

Bowler (43): Adin Brei 1-2 5, Zach Fehrman 2-4 10, Lane Schultz 3-4 7, Ashwuut Mohawk 1-2 3, Emmitt Kietlinski 0-0 2, Wylee Dodge 0-2 16.

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