Missouri Basketball

Went down to Missouri last week to visit my brother for Thanksgiving so wasn't in the area to watch any games. My brother is currently the JV coach for a small school in southern Missouri called Blue Eye and they had their first game last Tuesday night which allowed myself and my family to watch his first game coaching. The JV won 43-32 in a fairly ugly game which is to be expected in a JV game at a small school. Blue Eye's enrollment is in the mid 200s which would put them in division four in Wisconsin. Their opponent was a small private school in Springfield called New Covenant Academy which has an enrollment in the mid 100s which would put them in Wisconsin's division five.

Going into the game I knew it wasn't going to be a great game because Blue Eye has a pretty solid team this year that has 10 seniors and New Covenant didn't win a game a year ago. New Covenant had 19 players listed on their entire roster and suited up everyone but, the five varsity starters for their JV game. In the varsity game New Covenant didn't play a player taller then 5'11 and Blue Eye seemed to be head and shoulders taller at every position. Early on Blue Eye moved the ball extremely well finding open team mates for threes as 6'1 senior Adam Butler hit two early threes for Blue Eye and they never looked back. New Covenant play a zone much of the game which gave Blue Eye the three any time they wanted it and seemed they could drive to the middle of the zone and find a wide open 6'4 senior Dalton Moore wide open all night. Blue Eye jumped out to a first half lead of 48-23 half time lead and never looked back. Blue Eye pushed the tempo when they wanted and New Covenant seemed to rush all their shots to get them off against the taller defenders.

Blue Eye was able to play their bench about half the game and there really wasn't much to say about the second half cause NCA couldn't put the ball in the hoop and Blue Eye was able to get offensive rebounds all night long and seemed they scored every time down the court. Just not much to talk about in this one Blue Eye was just a better team and won 78-32.

Top Players
Silas Siebert 5'7 sophomore NCA- Really the only positive for New Covenant. Hit a couple of threes and was able to get his shot off but. probably took too many.

Dalton Moore 6'4 senior Blue Eye- Didn't do anything overly impressive but, did a real nice job of getting behind the zone defense and just moving along the base line.

Garrett George 6'2 senior Blue Eye- Was huge off the bench and may of benefited from the blow out game but, was able to hit some threes and dominated on the glass, seeming to get every rebound when he was in.

Markyse Goad 6'3 senior Blue Eye- Took way too many shots but, was easily the best athlete on the court. Showed very quick hands getting steals and mid range was very tough either passing to Moore for the open layup or elevating above the defenders to knock down the jump shot.

Box Score (starters in italics) 
NCA- Silas Siebert 12 Matt Searson 6 Taylor Dawley 4 Zeke Yost 4 Kole Stutzman 3 Duke Carlton 2 Reece Stutzman 1 Trevor Batten 0 Luke Han 0 Collin Whitcomb 0
Blue Eye- Moore 14 George 12 Goad 11 Orrin Curbow 9 Butler 8 Christian Melcher 8 Brandon Narancich 7 Wyatt Newman 6 Daniel Ray 4 Zach Jones 0

For New Covenant it's going to be a very long year but, the future is bright for them as the majority of their team was sophomores which should mean some improvement. I don't know how Missouri ball is but, if Blue Eye would be in Wisconsin they would be a top 20 team in Wisconsin D4 and top ten in D5. They have a lot of athletes and if they can play under control I would imagine that they would be tough to beat.