BCT 2023: Deep, talented Puxico opens tourney play in dominating fashion

BLOOMFIELD – It’s no secret to anyone watching the 2023 Bloomfield Christmas Tournament this week that Puxico has the potential to win this event. After all, the Indians are the top seed.

But just in case there were any questions regarding third-year Indian coach Bryant Fernetti’s squad, the Class 2 No. 7-ranked and unbeaten Indians sent a message on Tuesday with an opening 86-26 win over No. 16-seed Gideon.

In the game, Puxico got offense from nine different players and ultimately used 14 of them.

“We can go 10 or 11 deep,” Fernetti said earlier this season of his deep squad. “There have been games this year, as the game goes on, it just wears on (opponents) more and more.”

This past summer, Fernetti gave area teams a glimpse of what was to come this season. At times, he subbed out entire rotations of five players with five new players. He is doing that this season, and he utilizes the strategy even in close games against tough opponents, such as a recent win over Greenville.

“We have so many guys,” Fernetti said, “we might as well use them. That is how they have played better anyway.”

Fernetti said he turns his athletes loose and allows them to play basketball with a degree of freedom.

“It seems that if I try to hold the ball at the end of a game or slow it down a little bit,” Fernetti explained, “we start doing dumb stuff.

“It’s almost better to just let them go.”

Fernetti described his team as having “lanky kids and athletic kids,” which certainly is a match-up nightmare for opponents offensively. Trying to score against that length, particularly when Puxico’s defenders are fresh, and you’re exhausted from handling traps all game long, is a chore, as Gideon (1-6) discovered.

Not only is a hard to challenge the Indians (8-0) offensively but covering them defensively is even more difficult.

“We go to other games and see a triangle-and-two (defense) or a box-and-one,” Fernetti explained, “but I don’t think that we will ever see that because we have so many guys who can score. Even if (an opponent) does do that, that is fine, because other guys will step up and hit shots.”

Puxico sophomore guard Landon Burchard had 20 points in Tuesday’s victory while sophomore Jett Hancock (12 points), Mason Parsley (seven points), Jerrett Powell (18 points), Thomas Burch (eight points), and Scyler Zimmerman (nine points) also contributed offensively.

Puxico sank 10 3-pointers against the Bulldogs.

“That is what makes us tough to guard,” Fernetti said, “is once we start hitting shots. But we also need to remember that we have a pretty good post-player in there, too. A couple of them actually.

“So, don’t forget about those guys.”

Gideon was led by 6-foot-4 junior center Drake Montgomery with eight points.

The Bulldogs will face Twin Rivers (5-5) today in a consolation quarterfinal at 11:30 a.m.

The Royals fell to Richland (Essex) 75-45.

Puxico will face the No. 9-seed Rebels (6-2) in a quarterfinal today at 4 p.m.