Bronchos defeat San Jon

Midway through a stagnant first quarter of an EPAC boys tournament game, Grady coach Jim Kneipp felt he had to do something to shake up the tempo.

But going to a full-court pressure defense was pretty risky business for Kneipp’s Bronchos on Thursday.

“Especially when you have only six kids,” said Kneipp, who actually had seven suited out for the contest. “We had one kid whose stepfather died, we had another kid who was out with the flu. We were down in numbers, but I didn’t feel like we could sit back and wait.”

The strategy paid off as Grady went on to a 56-36 victory over winless San Jon in the consolation bracket of the tourney.

Behind 6-4 with three minutes left in the opening period, the Bronchos (6-7) turned on the press and rattled off 14 straight points. The streak began when Grady senior Brian Blackburn put back in a teammate’s missed shot and ended when Blackburn connected on a field goal with 6:15 left in the second quarter.

Eventually, Blackburn fouled out and two of his teammates were saddled with four fouls, but the Bronchos were never seriously hurt by their lack of depth.

“It (the press) calls for us to be aggressive, but we got a little overaggressive and had to get out of it,” said Blackburn, who scored eight points and hauled down 11 rebounds. “But I think it got them out-of-balance. I don’t think anybody’s pressed them before and it just got them out of their game.”

Dalton Thomas led Grady with 13 points while Jimmy Lampley added 12. Tanner Allen also scored in double figures, with 10 points, while also grabbing seven boards.

San Jon (0-10), which had an advantage in numbers but not in height, was led by Michael Booth’s 15 points and eight rebounds.

EPAC TOURNAMENT

At Portales

Boys

Thursday

Consolation bracket

Logan 80, House 68

Grady 56, San Jon 36

Friday

Fifth place

Melrose vs. Floyd, 10:45 a.m.

Championship semifinals

Elida vs. Fort Sumner, 4 p.m.

Dora vs. Texico, 7:30 p.m.

Girls

Thursday

Consolation bracket

Logan 56, House 18

Fort Sumner 48, San Jon 28

Friday

Fifth place

Dora vs. Melrose, 9 a.m.

Ninth place

House vs. San Jon, 12:30 p.m.

Championship semifinals

Elida vs. Floyd, 2:15 p.m.

Grady vs. Texico, 5:45 p.m.