Local News

No. 1 Ranked Bison Avoid Upset in Tourney

(Three Oaks, MI) - The Class D #1 New Buffalo Bison seemed primed for an upset in their District 4 high school boy's basketball tournament opener with arch-rival the River Valley Mustangs on Wednesday night.

 

However, New Buffalo pulled ahead to stay in the third quarter to win 74-54 before a packed and boisterous crowd at River Valley High School.

 

The No. 20 ranked Mustangs in Class D jumped out to a 10-4 lead and were up 20-13 at the end of the first quarter. Using a trapping zone and their size advantage, the Mustangs kept smothering a frustrated high-powered Bison offense also hampered by turnovers. The Bison were also getting badly outrebounded. 

 

Several buckets from Anthony Lijewski kept the Bison from potentially getting blown out early until the rest of his teammates started scoring. The Bison went into halftime, trailing 32-31.

 

In the third quarter, Kaden Parmley and Mark Shaw put the team on their shoulders to quickly give the Bison a five-point lead. The lead grew to nine points, but after River Valley pulled to within four points, New Buffalo took over.

 

Head Coach Nate Tripp said he was never worried once his players in the second half began moving the ball like they’ve done all season to find open shooters. The inside then opened for New Buffalo to score close to the rim after Mustang defenders moved out to guard the outside shooters for the Bison.

 

“Those are all things that we celebrated with success all year. In the first half, we had none of that,” Tripp said.

New Buffalo plays for the district championship Friday night against No. 11 ranked Eau Claire.

 

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