Menu
Puxico cognizant of inside-outside Mule threats
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Bernie High School sophomore Jon Aycock puts up a shot against Dexter recently at Bernie.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
After enjoying a six-year run of at least 20 victories, the Bernie High School varsity boy’s basketball program slid back to half of that number a year ago. However, the Mules (10-3) have already matched the 10-win mark from last season after beating Bloomfield 44-38 on Tuesday.
“When we are playing fundamentally,” Bernie coach Jason Long said following a recent win over Dexter, “and playing together, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have the capability of doing some really nice, positive things.”
Gaining victory No. 11 will be a challenge, as Bernie visits Class 2 No. 3-ranked Puxico (14-1) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“We can’t leave their shooters,” fourth-year Indian coach Bryant Fernetti said of the Mules. “The last time we played them (Mule sophomore guard Cane Hobgood) wasn’t there, so it made it a little bit easier to guard them.”
Dexter recently found out what Hobgood brings to the lineup, as he sank eight 3-pointers in an overtime victory against the Class 4 Bearcats. Overall, the Mules sank 12 3-pointers in the win.
“Cane is a reserved, quiet kid,” Long said of Hobgood, who never showed any emotion following his numerous big makes. “He’s an excellent kid, forget the basketball (part of it).”
Bernie makes for a tough task to guard because of their perimeter shooters, as well as having 6-foot-4 sophomore Jon Aycock on the blocks.
“We don’t want them getting (perimeter) shots off,” Fernetti continued. “With Aycock, something that helps us defensively is someone like (Indian senior Kaysen Long) can guard anybody (positions) one through five.”
During Bernie’s thrilling victory over Dexter, it was interesting that Long sat front row behind the Mule bench watching every aspect of the Bernie attack.
“Usually,” Fernetti said, “the best offensive player on the other team, especially if they are a little bigger, we’ll put Kaysen on him.
“He’s done a pretty good job on them.”
As much confidence as Fernetti has in Long, he readily acknowledged the challenge that his team faces.
“Aycock is a very good player,” Fernetti said. “Hopefully, Kaysen can do a good job on him. We have done a very good job with our man-to-man defense this year. I feel like that is the biggest difference from last year to this year.
“We are better defensively.”
That was evident on Tuesday against Dexter.
Puxico trailed the Bearcats at the Bearcat Event Center 40-37 with just over four minutes remaining but limited Dexter to just three points as the Indians closed that game on a 16-3 run.
“We ramped up our defensive pressure,” Fernetti said following that win. “(Dexter) turned it over a few times and we were able to get some runouts for some lay-ups and some (3-pointers).”