Puxico pressures Greenville, rallies for stunning W

Puxico High School defenders, Kaysen Long (25) and Sayler Zimmerman (35) pressure Greenville ballhandler Jimmy Marler (30) in the backcourt on Thursday at Puxico High School.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

A little fewer than eight minutes into his team’s game against a very good Greenville program on Thursday, third-year Puxico High School boy’s basketball coach Bryant Fernetti could not have been feeling very good about his situation.

“I just told myself,” Fernetti said following the game, “that we weren’t going to shoot that badly the whole game.”

The Bears raced out to a 13-0 lead and the host Indians didn’t score a point until 1:21 was remaining in the opening quarter, but Fernetti’s guys managed to – somehow – rally for a 62-51 win, and stay unbeaten through four games.

“We finally started to either drive (the ball),” Fernetti explained of the rally, “or hit the player in that high post area because that is a soft spot in their zone, and then we started to make some shots.”

The Indians recovered from the disastrous start and scored 10 consecutive points, but still trailed 25-19 at halftime. However, Fernetti utilized 10 players, seven in each of the four quarters, and the Indians’ trapping zone wore on the Bears with each passing minute.

“We were up 10,” Greenville coach Nathan Walk said of the Bears’ margin early in the third quarter, “and we started getting away from what built us that lead, which was playing out of traps, executing our offense, and getting what we wanted.

“We let them speed us up.”

And for Greenville (3-4), which has battled illness and injuries of late, that was the beginning of its problems.

The Bears still led 38-31 with 1:45 remaining in the third quarter, but Puxico junior Mason Parsley buried a 3-pointer, which kick-started an eventual 12-2 Puxico run.

“It seemed like, for a while,” Fernetti explained, “we couldn’t get out of our own way. We would have open lay-ups and miss them, but then, finally, we got the lead.”

The Indian press forced a Greenville turnover in the backcourt, which led to, yes, a missed close-in shot. However, Puxico sophomore Jett Hancock nabbed the offensive board and put it back in to put his team up for the first time in the game, 41-40.

“Our legs left us tonight,” Walk said of his seven-man rotation. “Hats off to (Puxico). They didn’t lay down. They are super deep. (Fernetti) has a ton of kids that he can throw out there, and they all do a lot of really good things.”

Throughout the final period, Puxico methodically pulled away, as the Indians doubled up the Bears 26-13 over the final eight minutes.

“The plan is,” Fernetti explained of his defensive pressure, “we have so many guys, we may as well use them. That is how (the players) have played better, anyway.”

Parsley paced the Indians with 13 points while sophomore Landan Burchard and junior Jarrett Powell each added 11 points in the win.

Puxico got seven points apiece from senior Thomas Burch and junior Sayler Zimmerman.

Greenville senior guard Easton Evans scored 14 points while senior post Trey Porter paced his team with 17 points.

“You just try, and hope,” Fernetti said of defending the massively big, strong, and agile Porter, “you can front him with backside help. We didn’t do great on that.”

Greenville junior Jimmy Marler chipped in 10 points while junior Cooper Sturgeon had six points for the Bears.

Greenville will travel to the Senath-Hornersville Christmas Tournament next week.

The Indians will visit Advance (1-2) tonight at 7:30 p.m.