Hornets hold off Bernie, 74-70

Advance - The game of basketball can quite frequently be summed up with the phrase “A Tale of Two Halves”. That’s exactly what happened Friday night at Advance High School as the visiting Bernie Mules came out firing on all cylinders but eventually came up short against a resilient Advance Hornet team, 74-70.

Bernie came out hot in the first half against Advance as the Mules seemed to hit everything they threw up at the rim. The Mules led 24-16 after one-quarter of play with seniors Tristan Johnson and Anthony Tucker connecting on solo treys and Landon Ellsworth nailing two triples.

The second quarter found the Hornets slipping even further behind as the barrage of 3’s came once again in the form of Bernie guard Michia Schooley who drained two, 3-point shots as did Ellsworth once again, putting the Mules up by as many as 16 points early in the period. Advance, however, clawed back to within 11 points of Bernie before the halftime buzzer as the visitors took a 42-31 lead into the locker rooms.

The Hornets looked focused and re-energized from the opening throw-in as Advance climbed back into the game, using their man-to-man defense to turn Bernie over a handful of times, combining that with a slightly cooler salvo from behind the arc to let the Hornets right back into the game with the home team taking a 52-50 advantage into the final quarter.

The momentum would stay with Advance as each time the Mules scored the Hornets answered, Bernie was able to tie the game up two different times coming down the stretch but Advance defense seemed to wear down the visitors, making the Mules turn the ball over with 1:11 left in the game.

Advance made its free throws at the end to seal the win and give the Hornets and coach Dennis Wheetley their 11th victory of the season.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Wheetley told his players prior to the game. “I told them before the game and at halftime we just have to keep fighting and no matter how far you get down just keep working hard. I also found out my triangle-and-two and diamond-and-one defensive scheme wasn't working so I told the kids lets go to man-to-man there to start the second half and it turned the game around. They sure worked their butts off.”

Wheetley’s defensive switch proved to be the winning decision of the game as his team worked the Bernie players over, making them commit several turnovers in the second half that led to easy layups or made three-pointers that gave Advance the lead.

“They showed me a lot tonight,” Wheetley said about his players. “I’m sure proud of each and every one of them and how they never quit.”

Advance senior Colton Silman led a quartet of Hornets in double figures scoring 20 points while fellow seniors Hayden Laird and Hayden Hitt scored 17 and 16 points respectively and Jaxon Limbaugh netted 12.

Bernie was led offensively by senior Tristan Johnson who scored a game-high 22 points followed by Ellsworth’s 21 and Schooley’s 20 points. Schooley drilled six 3-point shots in defeat while Ellsworth connected on five of them.

Bernie coach Jason Long was unavailable for comment.

Advance (10-2) will host St. Vincent (8-5) on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Advance High School.

Bernie (9-3) will travel to 5-7 Kennett on Tuesday with tipoff at 7:15 p.m.