Bernie, Missouri - On Friday, February 15th, the Bernie Mules celebrated their Homecoming night by putting up a tough game for the Sikeston Bulldogs. Although the game resulted in a loss for the home team, it was still a great game and there were many milestones that took place throughout the night.
David Baker has played for the Mules for the last four years of his high school basketball career and on Friday, his coach and teammates were happy to celebrate his 1000th point with him. It was an amazing opportunity and honor to receive such an outstanding achievement.
When the game first started, Sikeston took the lead in the first quarter of the game, where they pulled ahead by only four points. The Mules put up a fight against the visitors as BJ Jennings sunk two three pointers during the first quarter. The Bulldogs retaliated by doing the exact same thing and tossing up a layup.
In the second quarter, the Mules inched closer as they continue to score and began to push through Sikeston’s defense. The home team outscored the Bulldogs by two points, but began to close the point gap between the two teams. The score of the second quarter was 31 to 29 with the Bulldogs barely holding onto the lead. Senior David Baker of the Bernie Mules scored a total of eight points by getting four two pointers on the Bulldogs while his teammate, Jennings, snuck in and got another three pointer.
The Mules were making a comeback but let the lead slip out from under them. The Sikeston Bulldogs pulled sixteen points out of the third quarter and as the time quickly ticked away, the Bernie Mules only managed to score five points throughout the eight minutes. Senior Sam Turner shot a three pointer while Baker put in a layup. The Bulldogs stole and kept the lead for the rest of the night and the Bernie Mules slowly fell more and more behind. Sikeston’s player, Vashawn Ruffin, scored seven points and helped his teammates bring up the lead.
“We really struggled offensively in the 3rd quarter,” Bernie’s coach, Brad Botsch, explained. “Credit Sikeston for turning up the pressure and when they did, we did not respond well. They got a lot of easy buckets on us off of turnovers and we just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
During the fourth quarter, the Bernie fans were hoping for another comeback and the Bernie Mules began to score again, slowly coming closer to their opponents, who were playing the field nicely. In the final quarter, the Bulldogs shot a total of eighteen points while the home team only scored fourteen. Baker scored eight of the fourteen points and he and his team put up a great fight against the Bulldogs. The final score was 65 to 48, but it was an overall great game for both sides of the court.
“We knew coming off a loss, that they were going to be ready to come in and annihilate us. However, I thought our kids came out super focused and played a great first half defensively,” Botsch says. “When we are focused and intense, we are capable of playing great defense. We also did a good job against their press in the first half and were poised and composed the entire half. Overall, we can take some positives from this game that should help us prepare for districts next week. Playing Sikeston right before districts is great for us win or lose, and hopefully we’ll be 100% ready to go next week.”
The Mules have been preparing for their next game, which will take place tonight at 5:30pm at the Bloomfield District Tournament against Senath.
