Hoping for a late Christmas present, the Bruin’s boys basketball team tried to battle their way to the championship of the 2012 Joe Machens Great Eight Classic earlier this afternoon, Dec. 27.
At the start of the tournament, the Bruins wished to repeat as Great Eight Champions, previously beating Arlington, Ohio 46-39 in the championship game last year. But a Kentucky school had other plans, as Louisville Male High barely edged the Bruins 58-57 in the first game of the tournament.
In the first round, hosted by the Jefferson City Jays, the Bruins matched up with the Bulldogs, a magnet school from Louisville. Although LMHS isn’t known for their basketball program, instead holding a Kentucky state record of 27 track championships, the basketball team was hoping to improve on their 18-14 mark from last year, led by two senior guards, Josh Stoner and D.J. Lambert, both of whom are potential college recruits.
After three quarters and the Bulldogs riding a 12 point lead into the fourth, junior RBHS guard Zach Carroll recognized some faults of the Bruins.
“Our offense was very stagnant in the first half and we dug ourselves into a hole,” Carroll said.
However, the relentless Bruins overcame the rough start and battled back, drawing within four points to the Bulldogs with 10 seconds left, where the Bruins then inbounded the ball and junior Jackson Dubinski hit a clutch three pointer to bring the Bruins within one, but Louisville was able to run out the clock and escape with the win.
“We fought [until] the very end. We started to hit shots down the stretch that kept us in the game and we started getting to the free throw line more,” senior forward Alex Henderson said. “We clawed our way back into it, but we just ran out of time.”
The Bruins await the outcome of a 5:30 p.m. game between Mexico and Lausanne Collegiate High School from Tennessee. As the winner of this matchup advances to face LMHS, the loser falls backwards in the Great Eight bracket to play the Bruins in consolation. With the first round lost, the best RBHS can place is 5th, but the Bruins remain hopeful for the coming season ahead.
“I believe that our team will bounce back strong,” Carroll said. “We all have an ambition to win and we won’t let this get us down.”
By Graham Ratermann