Packed house in Independence. My first time seeing the Bearcats this year, they appear to have pretty good size. Tip-off in 5.

14-8 SK after 1. Pioneers are playing a very aggressive zone, for the longest time I always remembered Trent Steiner playing a very aggressive man man where he would deny the passing lanes. Seems like for the past couple years he’s changed his philosophy, I’ve seen more zone out of him.

33-18 SK at half. The pioneers hit, if my Batavia Math is correct, 5 three pointers in that quarter.

41-25 SK. Walton got it to 12, but sputtered a little the last two minutes.

42-27 SK with 3 minutes left. The referees have lost their mind the past three minutes.

Just now, PP1 said:

42-27 SK with 3 minutes left. The referees have lost their mind the past three minutes.

What do you mean?

And now we got a problem. It’s the referees fault 100%.

Well?  What’s the scoop? 

54-34 final. Some intentional, techs, coaches screaming at each other, etc. SK has one of the worst PA systems around so I couldn’t get all the calls.

Pioneers with a nice win! 

Evan Dennison posted on Twitter that two Bearcats were ejected. Possibly for leaving the bench during an altercation?

4 minutes ago, Mack The Knife said:

Evan Dennison posted on Twitter that two Bearcats were ejected. Possibly for leaving the bench during an altercation?

I thought so too, but there were not enough free throws shot by SK to suggest multiple technical fouls. 

The referees did a terrible job with game management and lost control of the game. The younger looking blonde ref was not ready for a Varsity Boys game with this level of intensity. The shorter ref, a guy I have watched since 2007 and whom I consider to be one of the best in the region, could have taken more control. The crew itself let it get out of hand.

Simon Kenton is playing really good defense. They absolutely suffocated Walton making it difficult for them to get a shot off. I am curious to see the stats to learn how many FGA Walton Verona had. 

1 hour ago, PP1 said:

And now we got a problem. It’s the referees fault 100%.

Was at the game. Do not understand how the issue was the refs fault? Did the refs throw Gutman into the wall, or am I seeing things? Maybe, we watched a different game? 

 

The only thing I would have done differently is ejecting #1 for throwing Gutman into the wall. Absolutely no place for that in basketball. I would have to imagine coach Hester will be sending the video into KHSAA to be reviewed. 

 

Steiner did a great job of controlling his team post-altercation, but I believe Hester could have controlled himself a bit more. 

Expected SK to win this one. SK has the physicality to control Gutman, and after Gutman, have the next 5 best players on the court at all times. 

32 minutes ago, LLS10 said:

Was at the game. Do not understand how the issue was the refs fault? Did the refs throw Gutman into the wall, or am I seeing things? Maybe, we watched a different game? 

 

The only thing I would have done differently is ejecting #1 for throwing Gutman into the wall. Absolutely no place for that in basketball. I would have to imagine coach Hester will be sending the video into KHSAA to be reviewed. 

 

Steiner did a great job of controlling his team post-altercation, but I believe Hester could have controlled himself a bit more. 

Was at the game as well. That was a hard foul but nowhere near ejection worthy. Just a hard foul and it got called flagrant like it should have. 
 

If KHSAA does look at video there will be a lot of suspensions for Walton players leaving the bench. SK staff did a great job keeping control of their players to make sure they didn’t storm the court and leave the bench.