Beatty gains valuable defensive experience at tournament

Beatty boys basketball was struggling offensively at the Beaver Dam Tournament last Friday and Saturday, but you wouldn't know it from their record. The Hornets (5-1) went 4-1, beating Indian Springs 34-21, Fredonia (Arizona) 27-25, Lund 38-14 and Fredonia 54-27. Their only loss was to Liberty Baptist 34-61.

Hornets basketball coach Steve Sullivan said there were two games during the tournament that defined the team. The first game was the first Fredonia game.

"Offensively, we are a team that struggles," Sullivan said. "We get open shots, but we are unable to finish. Against Fredonia we were struggling even to get open shots."

He said his team would cut to the wrong side, was not watching each other on offense, "and basically hit a low on offense." But his defense kept the team in the game.

The coach said the second half was totally different.

"Then throughout the second half the boys kept chipping away at Fredonia's lead," he said. "It was not until the final minute of the game that we finally had the lead and the win."

The other game was against Liberty Baptist, which was the team that won the tournament.

Sullivan said his team battled hard in the first half to tie the game.

"When we were tied I made some personnel changes to get some guys a breather and more importantly to get others experience," the coach said. "Based on who was on the court we changed our defense to a 2-3 zone which is vulnerable to outside shooters."

He said that's when Liberty Baptist started hitting three-point shots.

"The boys wanted to change back to man defense, but I told them no because they were not doing what we discussed to do," he said. "In order to prove a point we had to take a beating and lose our only game of the tournament."

Sullivan said his team was able to work on a lot of defense during the tournament and he was able to see what the team needed to work on offensively.

The coach picked Jacob Oseguera as the offensive player of the tournament. He averaged 11 points per game. As far as defense, he said it was hard to pick just one player.

"JhonPaul Adajar, who is leading the team in steals was one, but then you have Robby Revert, who is leading in rebounds," Sullivan said.

Beatty is at the Round Mountain Tournament today and tomorrow.

That tournament should be interesting because Beatty will face rivals Round Mountain and Tonopah.

-Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com