Jr High Bison face toughest district foe

Travis Cunningham led the 8th grader Bison to a comefrom behind victory over New Waverly. The undefeated junior high boys faced their strongest district opponents on Thursday night at the BJHS gym when the New Waverly Bulldogs came to town.

THE EIGHTH GRADE Bison were playing their first game without injured point guard Tate Hartley, and they had their work cut out for them from the beginning whistle.

Travis Cunningham and Cain Hays both knocked down three-pointers in the opening period, but the 'Dogs were still right on their heels at the end of the quarter, 13- 10. Cunningham had a huge second quarter and by halftime BJHS had stretched their lead to a more comfortable twelve-point advantage, 29- 17.

In the third quarter, however, the Bulldogs lived up to their name and tenaciously fought their way back into the game, outscoring the Bison 19 to 8. Their momentum carried into the final quarter as well, and New Waverly took the lead. With only seconds left in the contest, BJHS trailed by three points. Cunningham launched a long shot and the home crowd went wild when it drained the net to send the game into overtime.

BJHS owned the extra three minutes and managed to keep their perfect season alive with a 49-47 win.

Cunningham led all scorers with 23 points. Jose Dominguez scored 8, Trent Little added 7, Hays contributed 6 and Dominic Jackson had 5 to complete the scoring for the Bison.

THE SEVENTH GRADE game was a good one, as well. Balanced scoring by four Bison gave BJHS a solid first quarter, but the Bulldogs proved to be equally talented and answered them bucket for bucket, to knot the score at 16-16 after one period of play. Logan Jones sparked the Bison into the lead in the second, however, and BJHS was up 26-20 at the halftime break.

Tyler Adams had the hot hand for BJHS in the third and the Bison had stretched their lead to twelve going into the final quarter. There it was Brendon Smith who anchored the attack and BJHS chained up the Bulldogs, 50-35.

Smith led all scorers with 19 points. Adams and Jones followed with 15 and 12, respectively. Bobby Dorman contributed 8 and Trent Martin tacked on a bucket for BJHS.

The Bison travel to Centerville for their next district game on Thursday, 1-22.