Highlights of the Friday, January 6th boys basketball game between #4 Wheatland and #5 Buffalo.

Watch the highlights of the game!

 

 

Only a select few are chosen to hold the power of the cymbals in their hands! It takes great skill and co-ordination!

Number 4 Wheatland at Number 5 Buffalo…in a rematch of last year’s 3A state title game…first quarter…Wheatland wearing the black…Kolby Braisted gets inside to score the first bucket of the game, to give his Bulldogs a 2-zip lead.

Early on, the visitors were doing what they do best…lighting up 3’s…and who better to do it than Ryan Madsen…21 points for the senior, and last year’s state runner-ups jump out to a 5-to-1 advantage.

Then Buffalo would start to get with their game plan…and what they do best is get the ball inside to guys like Aaron Fenner…he’ll score in traffic and the Bison now have some points, trailing, 5-to-3.

The home team is also pretty good at offensive rebounds…Fenner is going to prove my point on this play, and there’s no one to stop him on the putback..the score is now tied up at 5 points a piece.

The Bison had a few moves of their own away from the hoop as well…like this one by Kalob Rodriguez…he’ll eventually pop and hit from about 15 feet away to give his team their first lead at 7-to-5.

The Bulldogs would try the up close game for awhile themselves and it had some results…Braisted gets the hoop and the harm and 1 more…the 3 point play has the boys in black up 8-to-7.

The were keeping the home team defense moving around a bit…and eventually that opened up some room inside…Colby Geile will score the first 2 of his 11 points on this play to make the score, 10-to-7.

The home team was just Buffalo-ing their way in quite often..because that’s what they do best and it works. Here’s another example courtesy of Chris Mikal as his team lead 13-to-12 after the first 8 minutes.

2nd quarter…Wheatland tried to reach into their bag of tricks…Madsen scores quickly off of the in-bounds play and that would break another tie and put the visitors up 17-15.

But then the Bison stampede got under-way and leading the charge was Rodriguez who was taking over…this bucket got things started to tie the score up at 17.

Moving ahead…the defense and transition game would come into play…Rodriguez is already at the near hoop…his team-mates find him and he finds 2 more points to make the score 21-18.

Ok…he didn’t do all the work…he got some help…here’s Seth Hostetler making his introductions known with 2 points….that would build a 5-point cushion with the score at 23-18.

Of course all that work inside was going to result in a few bumps and spills here and there…Fenner is going to Buffalo a defender and get the call and the bucket…he missed the extra try, but the Bison are still up 25-21.

Now this highlight is just some good heads up defense…Rodriguez…right place…right time…2 points…that was easy…the home team is taking control up 29-21.

Here comes more…and it’s Rodriguez again…he was scoring in just about everyway possible…the only thing that stopped him was halftime…there’s another 2 points to his total…but he wasn’t done just yet…the defense gets the turnover…Rodriguez gets the finish…and that would cap off a 20-to-4 run to give Buffalo a 35-to-23 lead.

Wheatland had to get something going or else they were going to be in big trouble…Tyler Pollock is open behind the defense and he’ll get the 2 just ahead of the halftime buzzer…that would stop the bleeding temporairily but the Bulldogs were down 35-25 going into the locker room.

Meanwhile the cheer-leaders were just jamming in the stands. Girls just want to have fun and they were.

3rd quarter…the Bulldogs tried to get back on track…earlier they didn’t make many 3’s, because they didn’t shoot many 3’s…David Nelson tries to take care of that problem with this one…the boys in black still trail, 37-30.

Someone else had to step up for Buffalo now that Rodriguez had cooled off a bit…Mikal started heating up just in case…we did not get his numbers but we know he scored in double digits so we’ll credit him that.

The Bison went back to work inside and getting the offensive board at times as well…Mikal gets one and a bump inside…no call but he’ll get the 2 and that pushed the lead back up to 13…it’s 43-to-30.

When you’re hot, you’re hot and Mikal was finding ways to get the job done…nice reverse lay-in here and that would give the defending state champs, their biggest lead of the game at 15 points…the scoreboard reads 47-to-32.

Then the dogs were finally let loose and they would make a run…here’s Dusty Nipper from long range….got it…that’s what Wheatland prefers to do, but they need more, down 47-35.

A turnover right about now would probably be nice and Wheatland would step up to the challenge…Geile would miss the fast break lay in, but Madsen was there to clean up the mess and put it away…that got the deficit down to single digits…it’s 48-39.

Buffalo knew something was up and they needed a momentum killer…Dylan Marton will get a kiss off the glass to add to the cause…and that opened up some breathing room with the score at 52-40.

But the Bulldogs were starting to get loose from their chain…Madsen…performs a trick and he gets a treat with 3 more points…the visitors were slowly getting closer…down 52-43 going into the final 8 minutes.

4th quarter…they were still coming…and so was Madsen…no 3 this time…he’ll just drive to the hoop and score and get back up for another…Wheatland still trails 52-45.

They still had a few bones to bury but they were sniffing them out as well…Geile scores off of his own miss to put the finishing touches on a 17-to-5 run…Wheatland is right back in this game, down 52-to-49.

The Bison were in no mood to let them get any closer…Fenner’s lay-in got things back up to 60-to-52, but there was some time left on the clock, so it was not over just yet.

Wheatland was hanging around…Nelson is that doggie in the far window…wagging his tail for 3…his team was still within striking distance…down 60-to-55.

Then this little guy just couldn’t wait another 14 years before he got his turn in the highlight reel…he wanted to be on now. He better remember that moment.

But in the end…Buffalo was also finding ways to break the full court press which lead to fast break points such as this one by Rodriguez, as the Bison would pull away in the end for the win…63-to-56.

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