Staff writer
The matchup against 3A Southeast of Saline Friday on the road was a tough one for the 1A Centre High School boys basketball team. They were defeated, 45-32.
The Cougars started strong, keeping the Trojans from scoring a field goal until almost halfway through the first quarter.
Centre took an early 7-1 lead on two field goals by Brian Burhoop and a field goal and free throw by Tanner Brunner. Southeast began to gain on them and trailed, 8-6, at the end of the quarter.
Burhoop, Kordell Harding, Rustyn Kerbs, and Tyler Klenda each scored field goals in the second quarter, but Centre was outscored 16-11 and trailed at halftime, 26-19.
Turnovers, missed free throws, and cold shooting in the second half caused the Cougars to fall farther behind as the game progressed. They were outscored 13-8 in the third quarter and 10-5 in the fourth, to lose by 13 points.
The Cougars shot about 40 percent from the field, completing 12 of 31 attempts. Brunner led scoring with 12 points, followed by Burhoop with 10.
Adam Matz and Burhoop were 2-of-2 at the free-throw line. Brunner completed 2-of-9 free-throw attempts. Brunner led at the board with 11 rebounds. Burhoop had 6 and Trevor Hageberg had 3.
Coach Greg Wyatt said the team played a good game defensively, but they need to work at making more shots and scoring more.
“Our goal is to hold opponents under 50 points, and we accomplished that,” he said. “We need to get 60 shots a game, and we shot only 36 times. This was game 1 of our 20-game schedule. We’ll get things worked out.”
The Cougars will play Northern Heights Thursday and Herington Friday in the preseason tournament at Herington. Both games will start at 8:15 p.m.
Centre Boys Box Scores
SES 45
Centre 32
FG FTS PTS PF R S A
Brunner 5/9 2/9 12 2 11 2 2
Burhoop 4/6 2/2 10 3 6 0 0
Kerbs 1/5 1/1 3 3 1 1 2
Klenda 1/1 0/1 2 3 1 0 0
Matz 0/1 2/2 2 3 1 0 2
Harding 1/6 0/0 2 0 2 0 1
Hageberg 0/3 1/2 1 0 3 1 0
Methvin 0/0 0/0 0 1 2 1 0