BOYS BASKETBALL: SWEET REVENGE
By BRANDON HURLEY
Sports Editor
CHURDAN – A 15-0 first quarter run gave the sixth-ranked Ar-We-Va Rockets the confidence they needed to springboard to an 81-49 victory over Paton-Churdan (2-5) Tuesday night in Churdan.
It’s Ar-We-Va’s ninth straight win to start the year and avenges their only Rolling Valley Conference loss in program history.
Ar-We-Va has won 66 of 67 RVC games over the past three and a half years, with their only defeat coming at the hands of Paton-Churdan last February.
Ar-We-Va entered the 2016 contest riding a 58-game conference winning streak, but lost 64-62 in Churdan, which still remains their only conference blemish to date.
To say Ar-We-Va (9-0) wasn’t looking forward to Tuesday’s match up would be a bit of an understatement. Revenge was certainly on the brain.
“I’m not going to lie, the kids have not forgotten it. It was a good game here last year. When they won last year, they felt like they really won something big,” Ar-We-Va head coach Matt Wilken said. “(Our kids) didn’t forget and they should remember that because (Paton-Churdan) played really well and beat us. They wanted to get back at them.”
The sense of urgency was apparent from the start as the Ar-We-Va defense took advantage of a flat Paton-Churdan offense early Tuesday to sprint out to a 15-1 lead. The visiting Rockets used an array of fast breaks and momentum-swinging threes for their offensive outburst and cruised to 47 first half points.
“The inside-out game (really worked for us). We made shots, we had a lot of good extra passes,” Ar-We-Va head coach Matt Wilken said. “There were times where we could’ve shot it but made the other pass and it was a big difference. We really passed well tonight.”
One extra pass in particular sparked the first quarter onslaught as senior Derek Schurke connected on a four-point play from the corner to put Ar-We-Va up 9-0. Ar-We-Va led by 14 before Paton-Churdan connected on their first field goal.
Paton-Churdan’s Joe Towers then ripped off five straight points to kick-start the hometown offense as Paton-Churdan went on a 10-4 run to close Ar-We-Va’s advantage to 19-11. Paton-Churdan trimmed the Ar-We-Va lead to six as senior Chase Juergensen found success down low for back-to-back buckets but Ar-We-Va waethered the storm and began the second quarter with a 24-15 advantage.
Ar-We-Va bounced back from Paton-Churdan’s late first quarter scoring output and ran off a quick 12-2 run to take a 33-17 advantage.
The lead expanded over the following eight minutes thanks to three gritty buckets in the lane from Ar-We-Va senior Alex Kock, who connected on two three-point plays and finished the quarter with eight points and 14 for the game.
The athleticism, cohesiveness and speed of Ar-We-Va was just too much to overcome for Paton-Churdan as Ar-We-Va outscored the hometown team 23-10 in the second period to take a 47-25 advantage at half, one that would only continue to balloon over the final two quarters.
“(Ar-We-Va) has a group of guys that have played together for four years as starters. They are very athletic, they play well together and they have gelled (over the years),” Paton-Churdan head coach Chris Stimson said. “There were a lot of times where they just out hustled us. They ran their offense well and waited for us to make mistakes. At times, we don’t do that and I think that’s just it.”
Ar-We-Va opened the third period with a 10-2 run, securing their biggest lead of the game at 30 (57-27) and never looked back.
The visitors led 65-36 after three and cruised to the eventual 32-point win.
Ar-We-Va put together another well-balanced scoring attack as Jake Danner led the way with 18 to go with Kock’s 14 while Zach Kraus added 14 points and Derek Schurke contributed 10.
Towers led Paton-Churdan in scoring with 19 while Jake Berns tallied 14 and Juergensen added 12 in the losing effort.
The 81 points Tuesday pushed Ar-We-Va’s scoring average to 69 points per game, which is the seventh best mark in all of 1A. They also drained nine three-pointers, which ups their season total to 76, second most in the state.
Ar-We-Va has been in just two contests that stayed within 15 points during their nine-game win streak. Coach Wilken said its due to an innate ability to adapt night-to-night.
“Knowing what is not working and going the other way. If our outside shots aren’t working we go inside and vice-versa,” Wilken said. “And we really push (on offense) to get going, that helps us a lot.”
An unfortunate four-game losing streak after starting the season 2-1 finds Paton-Churdan in a bit of a rut. Stimson believes there are a few things, that if addressed, may turn around the Rockets’ season.
“I think I saw some things tonight and I’ve been kind of holding off on (making changes). We’ve had a few games postponned and I’ve been waiting to see some things out of a few kids," Stimson said. "I told them I am going to shake up the line up a little bit coming into practice (Wednesday) night. There will be a rhyme and a reason if someone is a starter and someone isn’t.”
It’s a matter of revaluating the collective desire and where this team wants to be, Stimson said.
Towers (14.8 PPG) and Berns (14.5 PPG) continue to lead the team in scoring while Berns has connected on 47 percent of his shots. Towers dishes out 4 assists per game in addition to his team-leading 2.6 steals per game. Juergensen is hauling in a team-high 5.2 rebounds per game
The Rockets are at home to take on 6-2 Exira-EHK Friday, a Spartan team that whooped up on Paton-Churan in the season-opener in Elk Horn, 61-41 behind 34 points from Josh Pettepier, including 10-of-11 from three.
Exira has four scorers averaging double-figures while they connect on 50 percent of their shots as a team.
Paton-Churdan hits the road against West Harrison (1-7) Saturday, a team they beat 52-41 on Dec. 2 before they return home once more to face Iowa Christian Academy (1-5) Monday night.
It’s a busy stretch that could potentially make or break the season, Stimson said.
“We to just have to come back to work. I told them I’ve never had a team quit on me before and they didn’t do that (Tuesday),” the coach said. “But we can’t just have 30 second, one minute flashes of kids working hard. We have to have 32 minutes of five kids working hard offensively and defensively.”
Friday’s tip against the Spartans is set for 7:30 p.m. following the girls’ game in Churdan.
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