Puxico coach looking for better offense out of his dominant team

Monday, January 27, 2025

Puxico High School junior guard Jett Hancock makes a pass to senior teammate Jerrett Powell during a recent game against Dexter at the Bearcat Event Center.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

There is no shortage of concerns for the opposing Stoddard County Athletic Association teams in thinking about the top-seed Puxico squad, but the remaining seven teams can also put this on their list of worries: Indian coach Bryant Fernetti isn’t entirely pleased with how his team has executed this season.

“I don’t think that we are moving the ball quite as well,” Fernetti said recently of the Indians’ offense.

To his point, Puxico (14-1), which is ranked No. 3 in Class 2, isn’t matching last season’s statistical average of 70 points per game.

Fernetti’s team has scored four points below that mark, so far, and has only reached that level four times in 15 games.

“When teams throw some junk defenses at us,” Fernetti explained, “we’re kind of thinking, instead of playing.”

In a recent win at Dexter, who will host this week’s SCAA Tournament, the Bearcats made a concerted effort to take Indian junior guard Landan Burchard out of the game offensively. The strategy worked, as Burchard scored an astonishing one point. However, Puxico closed the victory with a 16-3 run to easily win 53-43.

“We’ve worked on (facing different defenses) a lot in practice,” Fernetti said. “In practices, we just go and play. But, in games, it’s almost like we have a hard time just going and playing.”

That “hard time” is all relative. Puxico’s only loss this season has been a last-minute defeat in Puxico by Thayer, who is ranked No. 3 in Class 3.

A BIG reason for the Indians’ dominance has been a markedly improved man-to-man defense, according to Fernetti.

“We’ve got a lot of good individual defenders,” Fernetti said. “We really do have pretty good man-to-man defenders and we’ve done a lot of work on that over the last two, three years.

“We’re getting better at man-to-man defense, and I think it’s kind of paying off.”

Puxico cognizant of inside-outside Mule threats

Tom Davis

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.

Puxico is only allowing opponents to score 45 points per game, which is by far the best that the program has defended in at least 17 seasons.

The Indians can wreak havoc for opponents from an extended full-court zone defense, which often drops back into man coverage.

“A lot of kids like to press (defensively),” Fernetti said, “because it is more of a fun style. The harder thing is trying to get them to play half-court man.”

Puxico will open the SCAA Tournament on Monday at 5:30 p.m. against No. 8-seed Advance (4-10).

The other varsity game on Monday will be No. 4-seed Richland (Essex) (9-5) against the host Bearcats (7-9), who are the No. 5 seed. That game will be played at 8:30 p.m.