Bison hit a brick wall in season opener

BHS junior Logan Beard and his teammates battled hard against a tough opponent in the BHS vs Lorena varsity basketball game on Friday night. Fresh off their last football game and with only one week of basketball practice under their belts, the Bison opened the 2009-10 season with a fiercesome opponent in the 3-A Lorena Leopards. LHS can boast size, depth, speed and experience and are already well into their roundball season -- and it showed on the court. The larger school also requested Buffalo play three games in order to give Lorena's freshman AND junior varsity teams a game, so for BHS that meant that several players doubled up, playing both freshman and JV games, or JV and Varsity. It turned out to be a long night for the Bison, who came away with one victory and some hard-earned experience.

IN THE FRESHMAN game, seven Bison squared off against the Leopards in a tough battle. The Bison had trouble finding their rhythm and got off to a slow start, training 4-8 after one quarter and 8-13 after two. Early in the second half, BHS had a run to tie the game at 13, then the Leopards jumped back up to lead by six, 15-21 going into the final quarter. The fourth, however, belonged to the Bison. Travis Cunningham got fired up and poured in eleven points to spark Buffalo to a come-from-behind victory, 34-25.

Congratulations to the Bison honorees on the District 21-2A All District teams:. (Back Row) Jordan Nix, Eliceo Gonzales, Esteban Espinoza, Jacob Rodell, Dominic Jackson, Creagor Elsom, Dylan Ansley; (center) Clayton Smith, Jared Hawthorne, Chris Sweeney, Aurelio Dominguez, Jose Dominguez, Casey Helfenbein, (front row) Ryan Read, Aaron Bell, Andrew Houston, Jordan Canady, Rigo Andrade, Saxton Sims, Curtis Yates and Damian Rodriguez. (Not pictured: Dakota Champion, Daniel Vazquez). Van’Go’photo 21-AA ALL-DISTRICT HONOREES Cunningham finished the game with 18, followed by Tate Hartley's 10. Other contributors included Taylor McGill with 4 and Cain Hayes with 2.

Travis Cunningham takes it to the net in the freshman game. Van’Go’photo THE JUNIOR VARSITY game also found the Bison spotting the Leopards to an early lead. Still playing on "football legs", the Bison found themselves trailing by 11 after the first quarter and the Leopards eventually doubled up on the Bison to win 85-39, pouring in six threepointers. LHS' top JV scorer poured in 31 points, which boded ill for the Varsity game to follow.

Power forward Creagor Elsom led the scoring for the Bison with 17 points and Tate Hartley followed with 11. Rounding out the Bison scoring were Logan Beard (4), Cain Hayes (3), Colton Morman (2) and Jordan Nix (2).

THE VARSITY MEN faced the biggest challenge of the night -- quite literally. Lorena put a tall team on the floor and boasted a 6'7" post man. They were led by an outstanding player, #30, who will have his pick of Division One schools. The Buffalo players' own game was frustratingly cold and nothing would drop for the Bison. BHS ended up on the short end of a 92-16 scoreboard.

Senior Jordan Canady led his team with 11 points, Saxton Sims added three and Damian Rodriguez tacked on a free throw.

This week the Bison host the Hearne Eagles on Tuesday beginning with the JV at 5:00. After that, their next game is at Cayuga on December 1.