DECATUR -- It looked like the Gentry Pioneers were going to walk away with another victory as they traveled to Decatur Nov. 22 to take on the Bulldogs at Peterson Gym, but it was not to be. The Bulldogs rallied late in the second quarter to go ahead of Gentry and eventually take the win.
The Decatur Bulldogs found themselves down by eight points as the first quarter ended, with the Pioneers leading, 15 to 7. But Gentry's lead would not last. The Bulldog defense held them to only two points during the entire second quarter. A pair of three-point shots by Taylor Haisman and one three pointer by Leng Lee moved the Bulldogs to within one point with a minute left to play in the first half. And, with less than a minute to play, Leng Lee hit a free throw to tie the game at 17. With the clock ticking down to five seconds, Decatur's Bracy Owens put up a three-pointer that hit its mark at the buzzer to give the Bulldogs their first lead, 20 to 17, going into the break.
The Bulldogs came out of the locker room determined to finish what they had started at the end of the first half. Decatur effectively shut down the Gentry offense, holding the Pioneers to only six points in the final quarter
The Bulldogs posted a 56-35 victory against the Pioneers, who only a week earlier defeated one of Decatur's old rivals, the Eureka Springs Highlanders, 69 to 59.
For John Unger, head boys' basketball coach, this game represents the beginning of what could be a winning season for the Decatur Bulldogs.
"The Gentry game is one of the best ones I've seen in six years," Unger said. "We put it all together, offense and defense, taking care of the basketball. Each possession we got what we wanted."
After the loss to West Fork the week before, Unger sat down with the team and re-examined the team's game plan, made changes along the way and executed that plan, resulting in the second win of the season against a 4A team.
Decatur received another exemplary performance from sophomore Taylor Haisman, who posted his second double (scoring over 10 points) of the season, hitting 5 three point shots for the night.
Unger reflected on his winning teams from 2012, 2013 and 2014, when the Bulldogs won the 4A West District and regular season titles, and sees a much more uniform effort on the part of those players that were freshmen at the time.
"This game was even better than the ones two or three years ago," said Unger. "We were used to getting away with just being athletic, with one or two players that could take care of things, but today we played as a team, as a unit. I couldn't be more proud of the way this team played, hustled, listened -- and they got the job done."
The Bulldogs will be in action Nov. 28 as they host the annual Decatur Holiday Hoops at Peterson Gym in Decatur. The Bulldogs take on another one of their old rivals, the Johnson County Westside Rebels, at 8 p.m.
For more information on tournament action, go to decatursd.com/athletics. to find out latest tournament seeds.
How they scored
Leading scorer for the Decatur Bulldogs was Taylor Haisman with 25, followed by Leng Lee with 14. Other Bulldogs scoring points included Jay Porter with six, Wyatt Bingham with four, Bracy Owens with three, Marck Guadarrama with two and Alex Lee with one.
Leading scorer for the Gentry Pioneers was Evan Folker with 11, followed by Cole Cripps with nine. Other Pioneers scoring points included Ethan Hammond with six and Logan Linton, Kyle Kilgore, and Gaving Martin each with two, followed by Christian Waddell and Dylan Kilgore each with one.
Sports on 11/30/2016