SHELBY – A suspected heated rivalry game between Hart and Shelby boys basketball turned out to be extremely one sided. The Pirates took control of Shelby on the road, claiming a 66-29 victory Tuesday, Dec. 3.
Hart didn’t waste any time getting going, taking the opening tip and forcing an early foul to get their first points at the line. From that point on, Hart simply showed more effort than the homestanding Tigers. Rebounds rarely landed with Shelby, mostly due to poor attempts at boxing out Hart’s athletes. The Pirates out rebounded Shelby 39-27 in all.
“It’s a rivalry game and our guys were hungry,” Hart head coach Nick Bronsema said. “We try to give great effort every chance we can. We know we can’t control whether or not threes, free throws or layups go in, but we can control how much effort we give.”
Extra opportunities were important for Hart, but it was their defense that truly won the night. The Pirates spent a majority of the night in man to man defense, using a full court press to force Shelby into costly turnovers.
Hart junior Miguel Escamilla was on fire from the start, scoring six points in the first quarter. Fellow junior Caleb Ackley matched that scoring output, leading to a lopsided 25-6 lead after eight minutes.
“As a junior, it’s (Escamilla’s) third year on varsity. He and Caleb (Ackley) are both third year juniors,” Bronsema said. “I’ve noticed a look in his eyes at practices that I’ve never seen before. You can see it when I try to sub him out – he doesn’t want to come out.”
The second quarter was more of the same. Hart nearly doubled their scoring from the first quarter. Escamilla and Ackley continued to lead the way, but the Pirates had nine players in the scoring column by the time halftime arrived.
Shelby’s sparse offensive output in the first half (eight points) was led by senior Nathan Miller who had four points. The Tigers showed a severe case of early season rust, something head coach Rick Zoulek attributed to a lack of focus and game experience.
“Our guys just didn’t react to the raised intensity. That’s got to come from game experience,” Zoulek said. “The more we play, then they’ll get used to doing some of that stuff. A lot of it is, we were hurrying when we shouldn’t but then didn’t hurry when we should have.”
The Tigers showed a lot more fight in the third quarter, matching Hart bucket for bucket. That resulted in a 12-11 scoring advantage for Shelby in that frame.
That led directly into the fourth and final quarter, despite trailing 58-20. Junior guard Eli Kelley scored five straight points to start the fourth. The Tigers once again outscored their opponent, notching nine points to Hart’s eight. That wasn’t enough to dig out of a nearly 40-point deficit though, putting Shelby into the loss column in their season opener.
Hart moved to 2-0 with the win, getting 13 points from Escamilla and 12 from Ackley. Four Hart athletes recorded seven points with Jagger Lenon, Brendan Hiddema, Kaden Bond and Ty Schlukebir adding to the scoring.
Shelby was led by Kelley with nine points while Miller put up six of his own. Griffin Olmstead had five points and five rebounds.
The Pirates will be back in action tonight (Friday, Dec. 6) as they travel to Wyoming to take on Kelloggsville. Shelby will also play tonight, hitting the road to take on White Cloud.
