by Head Coach Cory Buchholz
The Garretson Blue Dragon junior high boys’ basketball team continued and completed their busy season with a busy stretch of competitive games.
“With the cold and snowy weather affecting our schedules, many of our games were either postponed or cancelled which made for a busy schedule in the month of January," said Head Coach Cory Buchholz. "Even though our practice time was at a minimum because of the weather, I feel like our boys really did a nice job in trying to keep themselves engaged in the game and kept engaged in what we wanted to accomplish for the year. I really wanted to instill a team philosophy and work on many fundamentals of the game that will only help us going forward."
After about a month break because of the weather, on January 16th the boys welcomed the Trojans from West Central, and it really showed that we didn’t practice much as the visiting team really took it to us in both the 7th and 8th grade games. In a losing effort in the 7th grade contest (16-37), Colton Buchholz led the Dragons in scoring with 9 points followed up by the Coburn brothers, Gavin and Gabriel, each scoring 5 and 2 points.
In the 8th grade contest, it was much of the same with the visiting team being much more focused, dropping our 8th grade by the score of 15-43. Leading the way for the elder Dragons was Colton Buchholz with 7 points and Shea Smidt scoring 3 points. Cade Risty and Cooper Smith each had a 2-point bucket and with Gavin Coburn’s free throw, this rounded out the scoring.
“From the beginning of the evening, and with almost a whole month layoff because of the weather, we were just not focused enough to keep up with our opponents,” said coach Buchholz.
On January 20th, we entertained the Hawks from Colman Egan with much better results.
“In both games, the boys came out knowing that we were the better team and it really showed in their focus and hustle from the opening tip,” stated coach Buchholz.
In winning the 7th grade contest by a score of 44-24, Colton Buchholz led the young Blue Dragons in the scoring column with 19 points followed up by Gavin Coburn with 13 points of his own. Gabriel Coburn had a great game scoring 6 points while Cameron Roberts matched his 6 points with the same total of his own.
In the 8th grade game, it was much of the same scenario with our Dragons coming away with a 33-23 victory. Leading the way was Colton Buchholz netting 19 points. Gavin Coburn chipped in 5 points while Casen Smith and Shea Smidt each had 4 points and 3 points respectively. Cameron Roberts added a 2-point bucket to round out the winning score.
On the 23rd of January, the Blue Dragons traveled north into Flandreau Flier territory and took the first game of the night from the Fliers by the score of 35-28. Gavin Coburn had his best game of the season by pouring in 19 points and Colton Buchholz followed with 12 points of his own. Cooper Smith came off the bench and added 4 big points for the Dragons.
“This was a game where it really could have gone either way. I have been telling the boys that everyone needs to be involved and be ready to always shoot. We had 2 guys score 96% of our points and luckily it was enough to get the win. We will continue to keep working on being always ready, no matter who has the ball,” expressed coach Buchholz.
The 8th grade game was another game where unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the scoreboard, losing by the score of 34-40.
“We had multiple opportunities to take the lead and we just didn’t do the right thing during the moments when it mattered. Again, everyone that is on the floor always needs to be ready. This is another game where we were distributing the ball, but we just weren’t ready when the opportunity presented itself,” stated coach Buchholz.
Leading the way, with the hot hands of the night, were Gavin Coburn and Colton Buchholz each with 14 points. Rounding out the scoring in Flandreau was Shea Smidt with 4 points and Cooper Smith with 2 points.
Traveling to Dell Rapids, on January 26th, was next up for the young Blue Dragons. Although the score was tied at halftime during the 7th grade game, the Quarriers were just too much in the second half, outscoring the Dragons by a score of 28-48. Leading the way for the younger squad was Gavin Coburn and Colton Buchholz with 12 and 10 points apiece. The younger of the 2 Coburns, Gabe, dropped in 4 points and “Big Man”, Mason Snyders, rounded out the scoring with a big 2-point bucket in the 4th quarter.
We saw much of the same results in the 8th grade game with our opponents outscoring us by the score of 27-43.
“Dell Rapids just plain wore us down in both games. They have a ton of kids they can always cycle in and out of the game to where we had just gotten tired,” stated coach Buchholz.
Casen Smith had his best game of the season, dropping in 10 points. Shea Smidt and Gavin Coburn each contributed 4 points apiece. Colton Buchholz had “one of those days” from the field scoring 3 points and rounding out the scoring was Connor Smith and Miles Hanson each scoring 2 points in the losing effort.
The following day, we entertained guests from Sioux Valley.
“Even though we dropped both games, we did a ton of good things and didn’t back down from the challenge,” exclaimed coach Buchholz. “They always have a good program, and it was great to see our kids compete.”
Colton Buchholz made things interesting in the final stanza with multiple steals and finishes to close the score gap to within 3 but that is as close as we could get, dropping the 7th grade game by a score of 33-39. Colton led the way with 23 points followed by Gavin Coburn with 5 points. Trevor Bucklin had 4 put back points while Cade Risty had a free throw to finish the scoring column. While dropping the 8th grade contest by a score of 25-47, Colton Buchholz continued his good day leading the Dragons with 16 points followed by Gavin Coburn with 5 points while Casen Smith and Miles Hanson each added a 2-point bucket to round out the scoring.
On January 30th, the young Blue Dragons traveled to Baltic to take on the Bulldogs once again. In winning fashion by the score of 35-16, the 7th graders had a very balanced scoring attack. Colton Buchholz led the way with 14 points in shortened minutes. Also in shortened minutes, Gavin Coburn added 6 points while Cameron Roberts added 6 points of his own. Adding 2-point buckets were Gabe Coburn, Cade Risty, Cooper Smith, and Trevor Bucklin. Mason Snyders added a free throw to add to the winning team’s total. It was another hard-fought game for the 8th grade team, this time falling to their foes from Baltic by the score of 24-33. Colton Buchholz led the Dragon charge with 13 points while Cade Risty had a great game by hustling all over the place and scoring 6 points. Casen Smith added 3 points and Gavin Coburn added a 2-point bucket to round out the scoring column.
The month of February started out with the Dragons hosting the Cougars from McCook Central-Montrose. The 7th grade game saw the home team come away with another victory by the score of 44-25. Colton Buchholz had a great game while pouring in 26 points in limited minutes while Gavin Coburn was on the dishing end of many of those points, scored 10 points of his own. Gabe Coburn, also with many assists on the night, had 4 points of his own while Trevor Bucklin also had a great put back 2-point bucket. The highlight of the night was Greyson Petrick’s great backdoor cut and layup to get himself into the scoring column that has been eluding him all season!!
While the 7th grade had taken care of business earlier in the evening, the 8th grade unfortunately fell to the Cougars by a score of 30-49. Colton Buchholz led the way with 13 first half points and was followed closely by Gavin Coburn with 9 points of his own. Shea Smidt added 4 points while Connor Smith and Cooper Smith rounded out the scoring each with a 2-point bucket.
February continued its winning ways for the 7th grade team as we traveled to Parker and came out on top of the Pheasants on Feb. 6th, by a score of 48-22. In only 2 and a half quarters of play, Colton Buchholz poured in 24 points to lead the young Blue Dragons. Gavin Coburn, also in limited minutes, followed Buchholz with 11 points and Cameron Roberts added 7 points. Rounding out the scoring with a 2-point bucket apiece was Trevor Bucklin, Gabe Coburn, and Cooper Smith.
It was a totally different story during the 8th grade stanza with the good guys only scoring 15 points to the Pheasants’ 37.
“This was a frustrating game in many ways. We had one of our guys go down at the beginning of the 2nd quarter that just seemed to deflate our sails. Although we were only down by 6 points at the half, we just couldn’t seem to get anything going,” said coach Buchholz.
While playing limited minutes because of injury, Colton Buchholz led with 5 points and Cade Risty added 4 points of his own. Casen Smith, Gavin Coburn, and Shea Smidt each added 2 points apiece to end the scoring for the Blue Dragons.
In an early morning contest on Feb. 10th, our last contests of the season pitted the Blue Dragons against the Elk from Elkton Lake Benton. In the 7th grade contest, the young Dragons came out with some intensity on defense holding the opponents scoreless in the first half and taking the victory by a score of 31-13. Cameron Roberts led us in scoring. while scoring a season-high point total for him, with 13 points. Colton Buchholz, in short work, contributed 6 points while Gavin Coburn, also in short work, had 5 points of his own. Cade Risty joined the scoring column with a 3 pointer while Miles Hanson and Gabe Coburn rounded out the scoring with a 2-point bucket of their own.
In the 8th grade contest, our opponents came out and started to take it to us as they had a skilled post player that we had to adjust for.
“This was by far the best we have played all season. We helped when we needed to, and we were very patient on the offensive side of the ball. I have been waiting for this Dragon’s team to show up all year long and I am glad they finally put forth their potential,” exclaimed coach Buchholz.
Leading the way was Colton Buchholz with 21 points. Gavin Coburn tallied 6 points while Casen Smith and Shea Smidt were close behind with 4 points of their own. Connor Smith had a great put back for his two points.
This has been a great group of kids to work with and I am very excited for the future of Blue Dragon basketball!!! Thank you to all of you who have supported us this year and GO BLUE DRAGONS!!!
PHOTOS
DSC_1781: Shea Smidt weaves through the defense and rises high for a two-point finish against Chester early in the season. //Photo by Kelsey Buchholz
DSC_1733: Cade Risty looks at his options at the top of the key as Cameron Roberts sets a pick. //Photo by Kelsey Buchholz
