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.
