Puxico hoops getting defensive through summer tests

A Puxico High School defender matches up with a Bloomfield High School guard during a recent scrimmage at Arnold Ryan Gymnasium in Puxico.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

PUXICO – There wasn’t a lot NOT to like about how the Puxico High School varsity boy’s basketball team played last winter, particularly at the defensive end of the court.

The Indians won the MSHSAA Class 2 District 3 and Sectional 2 championships, which gave the program its 22nd and 23rd wins of the season, and defensively, the program was the stingiest (53.7 points per game allowed) in 16 years. However, for Puxico to step up another level, fourth-year Indian coach Bryant Fernetti is having his team adjust its focus to playing more man-to-man defense through its harried schedule this summer.

“We are getting used to it,” Fernetti said after watching his team beat Bloomfield handily in a scrimmage recently at Arnold Ryan Gymnasium in Puxico. “Teams wind up playing a lot of zone (defense) growing up and this is a lot different for them.”

Where the Indians weaknesses showed last winter were at the defensive end and on the glass.

In Puxico’s five regular-season defeats, it allowed the opposition to score nearly 72 points per game, even though Indian fans mostly remember the season-ending 50-48 loss to South Pemiscot in the MSHSAA Class 2 Quarterfinals.

“We’re a little more athletic across the board this year,” Fernetti said. “We can switch a lot more and I think that we are rebounding the ball a lot better this summer so far.”

Puxico will return seven players from its varsity roster, including seniors Mason Parsley, Jerrett Powell, Kaysen Long, Scyler Zimmerman, and Carson Ward.

Junior guards Landan Burchard and Jett Hancock will run the offense, but all of them will rebound the basketball, according to Fernetti.

“It’s going to have to be a group effort,” Fernetti said of grabbing errant shots. “If everyone just does their job and boxes out, does their work early, then we’ll get the rebound.

“It will depend on if we let people hit us first or we go box them out first is the key.”

Puxico ventured to the Rib City Shootout on Monday and earned three wins over Arkansas programs from Paragould, Brookland, and Blytheville.

The Indians will play in an event at Delta High School on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. (vs. Bell City), 2:15 p.m. (Risco), 3:45 p.m. (Woodland), and 4:30 p.m. (Delta).

“We’ve played pretty good this summer,” Fernetti said. “We’ve already played a bunch of games. We’ve played a lot of bigger schools and a lot of good schools.

“I don’t care if we win or lose, these are the types of teams that we need to play to get where we want to go.”