Bell City's Juan Hernandez proves key to any Cubs success

Bell City High School junior point guard Juan Hernandez drives to the basket against Chaffee during the recent Oran Invitational Tournament at Oran High School.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

Life comes fast to everyone, and the Bell City varsity boy’s basketball program is no exception to that.

Less than two weeks ago, the Cubs were riding a wave of euphoria with a 3-0 start to their season and the program’s first Oran Invitational Tournament title in nearly two decades. However, they got brought down to earth quickly with consecutive follow-up road defeats at Advance (76-59) and Class 1 No. 8-ranked Richland (Essex) 54-48, which is the team the Cubs toppled to win the OIT.

Bell City (4-2) steadied itself with a home win over Leopold (53-46) on Tuesday, but it faces another tough test tonight at home against Bernie (2-2) at 7:30 p.m.

“We’ve got to stay focused,” Bell City junior guard Jake Asher said after helping his team knock off top-seed Richland (Essex) in the OIT. “We did a good thing. We won the tournament for the first time in 19 years.

“But we all know that the real focus is February 28 and the (MSHSAA Class 1 District 2) championship.”

In the short term, the “real focus” should be achieving a very impressive win over a solid Mules team, and the play of Cub junior point guard Juan Hernandez will go a long way in determining if that occurs.

“Juan is just phenomenal,” third-year Bell City coach Luke Bixler said recently. “He’s got heart.”

Hernandez has the ability to score at all three levels.

Against the Rebels, he knocked in a 3-pointer, hit ‘off-the-bounce’ mid-range jumpers, finished at the rim, and got to the free-throw line.

“Juan goes out there and competes,” Bixler said. “He doesn’t care (about being a slight 5-foot-9 guard), he’ll take on the biggest guy in the gym.”

Bell City focus, maturity to be tested in 'back-to-earth' game

Tom Davis

Third-year Bell City High School varsity boy's basketball coach Luke Bixler implored his Cub players during the recent Oran Invitational Tournament to remain focused throughout the 32 minutes of each game.

That showed against Richland (Essex).

The Rebels are one of the top small-school teams in the state for several reasons, but size is one of them, and Hernandez drove into the heart of the Rebels fluctuating defenses repeatedly and either scored or dished to cutters for baskets.

“Juan believes in himself,” Bixler continued, “and our guys rally around him because he is little, but he is so strong and he does so many things for us, a lot of good things for us.”

The Mules advanced to the championship game of the recent Campbell Invitational before falling to the host Camels (58-47). Bernie's defensive statistics have ranged from impressive (holding a five-win Twin Rivers team to 46 points) to allowing 70 points in a loss to Class 1 No. 4-ranked Risco.

The Mules fell on the road Tuesday at Class 3 No. 11-ranked Woodland, who is unbeaten in five games.

Bernie will certainly be concerned with containing 6-foot-3 Bell City junior post Kale Richardson, who is a beast on either block, but each Cub possession starts in the hands of Hernandez.

“Juan is just a tremendous point guard,” Bixler said. “He can step up and score the ball, so we trust him a lot.

“He knows that we’ve got his back. He is the ultimate team player.”