Bucked again! All-Stars lose to Bucks for 15th straight year
Heading into the 15th annual meeting on the basketball court between the Holmes County Bucks and the Holmes County All-Stars, Thursday, March 24, inside the Dungeon at West Holmes High School, the All-Stars were hungry to snap a 14-year drought against what has frankly been a clearly superior team playing out of the Training Center.
But the All-Stars were unable to feed that hunger, being overmatched once again by an 8-2 Bucks team that dominated both ends of the floor to pull out an impressive 77-67 win and extend their unbeaten streak against the hapless County All-Stars to 15 straight.
The All-Stars never led, as Bucks player/coach Kevin Duff opened the first quarter scoring, running the baseline from left to right and dropping in a reverse layup to put the Training Center up 2-0.
Mike Kinsey of Village Motors would tie the game at two apiece with a layup at the other end, but that’s when Bucks big man and 25-year veteran Lester Endsley took over, pushing the Training Center out to a 9-4 lead by hitting twice from the top of the key, coming up with a steal near half-court and turning that into a deep three from outside the top left side of the arc.
“The guys actually wanted to shoot threes and try to open up the inside,” explained Duff afterward. “That was our main goal, so they kind of just kept airing it out.”
The game plan worked to perfection as Bucks veteran Jim Burkholder capitalized on the defense’s increased focus on the perimeter to hit from the right side of the baseline underneath the basket, pushing the lead to 11-4 and setting Endsley up for another triple-try, which was slightly off the mark but allowed another Bucks vet, Dennis Hershberger to gather in the rebound and hit a little stick back for a 13-6 lead.
“I thought we had enough time to work the ball and pass the ball up court, but everywhere we turned they had us covered up,” said West Holmes assistant girls’ basketball coach and Holmes County All-Star Ben Ogi after watching Hershberger come up with another Bucks steal and setup Burkholder for a jumper from the left elbow that pushed the opening period lead out to 15-6.
The All-Stars fought back hard, getting back-to-back layups from Jason Miller of the District One Fire House and Tom Arnold from Killbuck Savings Bank, but the Bucks brought that rally to a screeching halt when longtime veteran and three-point assassin Steve Miller used his patented one-handed left hand hook shot to drain a trey from the left corner and extend the Bucks lead to 18-10.
“We were outmatched,” said West Holmes head varsity boys basketball coach and Holmes County All-Star Jim Lindeman after watching Miller torch his team with the same shot two more times throughout the course of the game and after going into quarter number two trailing 18-12. “They made shots. That guy [Miller] with the one-handed left hand shot. It would take me 25 times to make that shot and he made three of them tonight. That’s all there is to it, you don’t see too many left-handed hooks like that from the three-point line.”
Kinsey would hit a triple-try for the All-Stars after Endsley opened the second quarter scoring with a put back off a Leroy Kuhns miss, but his lax effort on the defensive end would allow Duff to connect on a jumper from the right side and Burkholder to drain a three from beyond the top of the arc, as the Bucks extended their lead to 25-17 and Ogi lamented, “Tonight was just their night, because it didn’t matter what defense we threw, we thought about maybe a box and one on that guy [Miller] but we just couldn’t get out there to get him covered up at the three-point line. I would have liked to have seen Mike Kinsey play a little better defense, but he was slow on his rotations and it hurt us all night.”
The Bucks torrid shooting continued to hurt the All-Stars even worse, as Burkholder used a turnover to hit a short jumper, Bucks vet Travis McVay hit a layup from underneath, and Kuhns connected on a jumper from the right side of the lane, extending the lead to 31-24 before Ogi popped in a triple-make for the All-Stars to stem the tide.
Another steal and a coast-to-coast layup by McVay was followed by a stick back jumper from Hershberger off a Shawn Garnes miss, and although Ogi dumped in another bucket for the All-Stars off an assist from Lindeman, the Bucks would take a 41-32 lead into the break after Hershberger converted a four-point play, hitting a jumper and being awarded two free throws by referee Ron Hay after getting hacked in the act.
Some of the All-Stars would whine about the officiating, as acting coach Sam Steimel from the Steimel Law Office – filling in for longtime head coach Mark Lonsinger who was in Columbus covering the Hiland Hawks State semifinal win for “The Voice of Holmes County” – would come on to the court at the start of the second-half to present Hay with an oversized pair of glasses, and Lindeman would cheapen his comments at the end of the game by saying, “There’s no other way to describe it, they’re more conditioned, they were sharper, better coached and Ron Hay liked them, so that helped too.”
But let there be no mistake, the game refereed by Hay and longtime Bucks ref Steve Hoffman represented some of the finest officiating on area basketball courts this entire winter, and their superior work continued early in the third period when they awarded longtime Bucks veteran Harold Norris foul shots when he got entangled away from the ball on a missed shot attempt by Nate Weaver, draining one of four for two points and a 47-35 Bucks lead.
Quietly racking up points on three-pointers and short jumpers, Jason Hummel of Commercial & Savings Bank would drop in his game-leading 10th point on an easy layup, Jim Conway of Family Eye Care Center would hit a right side jumper for his first points of the game, and Ogi would use another Lindeman assist to cut the Bucks lead to 47-41, but the deadly one-handed hook of Steve Miller struck again from the left corner, killing the rally, bringing the crowd to its feet, and making the score 50-41 midway through the third.
“It’s fun to do it with one hand,” said Miller afterward, sporting below shoulder length white hair. “I did that at school too. I didn’t play ball, but I shot around and was good at that already then. Yeah, it’s fun.”
After Lindeman hit his one and only bucket, Ogi’s frustration started to boil over as he fouled Bucks trainer Lacy Sage, drawing another whistle after she missed both free throws, getting hit with a third straight foul after she missed two more and watching her finally connect after moving under the basket, adding two more points to the Bucks total and sending them into the final 10 minute quarter up 54-43.
After hitting one of three from the line for two points near the start of the final period, Weaver followed Hummel’s third three-pointer with a short jumper in the lane, pushing the Bucks lead to 60-48.
All-Star frustration boiled over again as Steimel argued a call from Hay – wrongfully so it appeared – drawing a technical from the officials and sending fan favorite Shawn Garnes to the line where he buried one of four for two points before taking a pass from Duff on the ensuing possession, putting it up and in and then leaving the court, flashing the thumbs up sign, to get high fives and hugs from fans in the stands, including West Holmes Lady Knights freshman basketball phenom Paiten Strother, in attendance to check out the action and root on the Bucks.
A Jason Miller layup and Tom Arnold jumper brought the All-Stars closer, but McVay hit his second shot of the quarter from underneath the basket to make the score 70-58 midway through the final stanza.
Elaine Miller of WKLM hit her only shot on the All-Stars next trip down the court and Arnold added a little stick back jumper but then it was “Miller Time,” as Steve Miller connected with the hook from the corner again and Jason Miller drained a triple at the other end for the All-Stars, making it 73-65 coming down the home stretch.
Having quietly been unleashing his frustration throughout the course of the game, Randy Ramsey of Village Motors fouled out of the game in the closing minute, sending Melissa Johnson to the line for the Bucks, where she drained one of five for two points.
With Duff’s entire team on the court to defend, Jason Miller launched an airball from the top of the arc and Kuhns gathered in the rebound, going the length of the court but missing his jumper, allowing Endsley to hit the stick back for the 77-67 Bucks victory and 15th straight win over the Holmes County All-Stars.
“They threw some new things at us,” said Steimel after the game. “Especially with the 15 players on at one time at the end when we were trying to make a run there. There were some new defensive moves, offense too. They had a spread offense this year, we hadn’t seen that before and that led to the confusion and the bigger gap in the score this year.”
While Hummel’s 13 points led all scorers, Endsley led the Bucks with 11 to go along with nine each from Steve Miller and Burkholder, who said, “When I’m open and ready to go…I’m ready to go,” pausing for effect and still sporting an intense game-face. “They played against me before and every year when I play against them I give them a different idea how I play. I’m sorry about the other team, but they’ve got to learn they have to practice every time they come to play against us.”
An obviously disappointed Ogi agreed, saying, “We just have to hit the court more this offseason and just try to put this game out of our mind and get ready for next year.”
And while Duff said, “It’s good to come out of here with a win. These guys, every game, they go out and give 110 percent. You don’t have to ask that of them. It’s 110 percent every game, they’ve done a great job this year,” Steimel talked about what he told his team after suffering their 15th straight loss.
“You just say, ‘Be proud that you lost to the Bucks and we’ll try again next year.’”
Good luck with that.
Published: March 24, 2011
