Mistakes piled up during Thursday's home game, but the Blair High School boys basketball team still found itself within three points of Hastings with a little more than 2 minutes to go.
“And then we had to gamble a little bit too much and they were able to stretch it out,” said coach Chris Whitwer after the Bears' first game of the new year.
The Tigers outscored BHS 11-5 down the final stretch and won on the road, 58-49. They improved to 5-4 overall with the victory, while Whitwer's squad dropped to 3-4.
“I just didn't feel like we played very physical,” he said.
The Bears' miscues mounted after they earned an 8-7 lead early during the first period. Brevin Leggott, who finished with a team-best 15 points, and Bo Meier hit 3-pointers, but Hastings still pulled ahead 13-10 through the full, 8-minute quarter.
The Tigers' lead grew to seven, 26-19, during the second period, too, as Whitwer's squad failed to capitalize on offensive opportunities.
“We left a lot of high-percentage shots out there that we just didn't score on. Normally we do — those fall,” the coach said, noting six or seven buckets his staff felt Blair should have had and missed during the first half.
Hastings later built multiple leads of 11 points after the mid-game intermission, but an 8-0 fourth-quarter Bears run cut the deficit to just 47-44 with more than 120 seconds left to make up the remaining difference. Whitwer said the Tigers' top player — Parker Ablott, who scored 17 points — played a big part in how the final minutes ultimately played out.
“I was really, really impressed with his communication and his ability to get guys where he needed them,” the BHS coach said. “Just made the right decisions, and was just a general on the floor. I thought he was a huge difference-maker.”
Like Ablott, though, Hastings' Chance Vertin had 17 points. Eleven more from Cooper Kindig helped the Tigers to the Eastern Midlands Conference regular season victory as well.
In addition to Leggott's 15 points, Meier scored 13 in defeat for the Bears. Aidan Slominski had 11, too — his second-straight game in double figures off of the bench.
Blair next hosts Class B No. 7 Bennington today at 7:30 p.m. Reserve play starts at 4:30 p.m. before the junior varsity matchup at 6.
BLAIR BASKETBALL LINE SCORE
Thursday
Hastings 58, Blair 49
HHS (5-4) 13 13 13 19 — 58
BHS (3-4) 10 9 15 15 — 49
Scoring: BHS — Brevin Leggott 15, Bo Meier 13, Aidan Slominski 11, Cooper Sorensen 3, Easton Bosanek 3, Hayden Daggett 2, Kalan Steinbeck 2.
HHS — Chance Vertin 17, Parker Ablott 17, Cooper Kindig 11, Ruei Duang 6, Eli Schneider 5, Kooper Kohl 2.
