Bell City boys give Kelly a Long night

BELL CITY -- Jeff Long was told by his coach and teammates to keep shooting against Kelly on Friday.

He did.

The result was Long poured in 25 points, including five 3-pointers. He combined with teammate Ronnie Gross for 23 points in the third quarter alone.

It was during the third quarter that Bell City increased its lead to as large as 25 points after leading by six points at halftime.

The Cubs held off a fourth-quarter comeback by the Hawks to win 78-66.

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.comBell City's Melvin Johnson is defended by Kelly's Josh DeBrock, left, and Levi Felter during the first quarter Friday at Bell City.

"They told me to keep shooting, so I kept shooting," Long said.

The Cubs outscored the Hawks 33-21 in the third quarter.

"We played zone and they had trouble with the zone, and we got down on offense and we ran our offense and we scored out of it," Long said. "I was feeling good, so I kept shooting."

The game also featured a coaching matchup between stepfather and stepson.

Pat Niemczyk, who became the Cubs' interim coach last month after Brian Brandtner was placed on administrative leave, is the stepfather of Kelly coach Nathan Wills.

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.comBell City's Brandon Bell passes to Jeff Long as Kelly's Eric Turley looks on in the second quarter Friday at Bell City.

"I hated it," Niemczyk said about coaching against his stepson. "You don't want to coach against your family. You know how that is. Win or lose, to me, I lose either way.

"I told them [Cubs players] we'd have to play hard because Kelly is extremely well coached. I knew they weren't going to quit."

Wills, who is a half brother of former Cubs star Nick Niemczyk, who is the son of Pat Niemczyk, said that it was enjoyable to coach against his stepfather.

"It's just kind of a basketball family," Wills said. "And then tomorrow we'll go watch Nick play at Three Rivers together. When he became the interim head coach, we talked a lot about practice drills and out of bounds plays so there wasn't any competition as much as just a family affair. So it was enjoyable."

Bell City, which led by two points after the first quarter, went on a 14-2 run in the first 3 minutes, 28 seconds of the second quarter to take a 26-12 lead. The Cubs hit three 3-pointers, including one from Long, who also had a 3-point play, during the stretch.

Bell City's Skylor Blackler looks to shoot as Kelly's Eric Turley defends.

But Kelly (10-12) crept back with a 12-0 run that cut the deficit to 26-24 before the Cubs (11-10) scored the final four points of the quarter to lead 30-24 at halftime.

"[Coach] told us we kind of slacked off there at the end of the second quarter and told us we didn't finish off the half pretty good and to pick it back up," Long said.

Gross was in foul trouble during the first half and was limited to three points. But he returned to net nine points in the third quarter when the Cubs did a nice job scoring in transition off their strong defense.

"I got off the bench because I was in a little foul trouble and I knew we needed to get some points," Gross said. "I just tried to start taking it in there. I started feeling it a little bit, so I figured I'd just shoot it and see if it would go in, and it did."

Long scored 14 points in the third, and the Cubs built a 61-36 lead before heading into the fourth ahead 63-45.

"They came out and hit some shots," Wills said. "That was something we were wanting to do is that if we were going to have someone beat us from the perimeter, it was going to be Jeff Long. And he did a good job of knocking down shots tonight. He got in a rhythm and that hurt us."

@z_agate_HSbasketball_linescore:Kelly 10142121--66

Bell City 12183315--78

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:KELLY (66) -- Ryan Essner 11, Josh DeBrock 14, Levi Felter, 13, Ross Lasater 2, Zach Essner 13, Eric Turley 13. FG 21, FT 22-39, F 18. (3-pointers: Essner 2. Fouled out: Turley)

BELL CITY (78) -- Melvin Johnson 15, Jason Hess 1, Timmy Long 3, Ronnie Gross 16, Jeff Long 25, Skylor Blackler 2, Leonard Schaefer 2, Brandon Bell 8, John Paul Arnold 4. FG 27, FT 12-32, F 20. (3-pointers: Johnson 2, Jeff Long 5, Gross 2, Tom Long 1. Fouled out: Bell, Arnold)