Stars fall in opener

BERNE — Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as putting the ball in the basket.
In their opener, the Starfires struggled to do so.
South Adams High School’s boys basketball team shot just 26 percent from the field Wednesday as it fell 55-45 to the visiting Union City Indians.
“How do you win without making shots? That’s the thing,” said SAHS coach Andy Brown.  “Any team that has skill, you’re going to have to win games without making shots all the time.  The ball doesn’t always go in the hoop.”
Shooting was a struggle throughout for the Starfires, but they managed to take advantage of some Union City foul trouble to put together a 10-0 run in the second quarter for a 26-21 halftime lead. But in the third, everything fell apart.
After SAHS pushed its advantage to seven points, Union City ripped off a 21-7 run. The Indians took the lead when Isaac Davison hit the second of backto-back 3-pointers with 4:42 on the clock in the third quarter.  “He keeps getting better and better,” said Union City coach Dustin Baldwin of Davison, who finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. “He has to do that for us.
“I think we have a very balanced team, but he’s somebody that has to come out and rebound and find everybody else as well as hit shots. And tonight he stepped up and hit some key shots in that third quarter to get them out of that diamond-andone zone that they were in.”
The Indians went on to score the final nine points of the period and then added the first hoop of the fourth for an eight-point lead. They hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter South Adams connected on just two of its 16 field goal attempts.
The Starfires managed to claw back within a couple of points  43-41 — with an 8-0 run capped by a pair of McGerran Clouser free throws, but they never got any closer. Union City scored the game’s final six points to seal the win.
South Adams shot worse than 31 percent in every quarter, finishing at 15-for-58 for the game.  The struggles were especially evident from long distance, where the Starfires made just four of their 27 tries (15 percent).  Brown said most of the time the Starfires were getting the looks they wanted.
“We forced some things. And that’s some things we’ll look at tape and see some of those times we forced things more than we would like,” he said. “But for the most part those aren’t shots we can’t hit. They’re just maybe not the best shots we always took.” The shooting difficulties took away what looked like a good opportunity for a win, as South Adams dominated the glass early on the way to a 10-5 lead that forced Baldwin to take a time out at the 3:16 mark of the first quarter.
The Indians clawed back to within one at the quarter break and then built a 19-16 lead before the home team took advantage at the foul line.
Getting into the bonus midway through the second quarter, the Starfires made six of seven foul shots during the 10-point run that forged their halftime lead. But then everything fell apart in the third quarter.
Marcus Teeter paced South Adams with 19 points. He shot 3-of-12 from long distance.
Jared Grabau followed with eight points, and Cole Myers and Justin Nussbaum had five apiece.
Trevor Thompson joined Davison in double figures for the Indians with 10 points to go along with seven rebounds. Isaac Jefferis had eight points, and Tyler Thornhill finished with seven points, six rebounds and three assists.

Junior varsity
The Starfires were in control in the first half and then dominated in the third quarter on the way to a 56-36 victory over Union?City.
South Adams had a nine-point lead at the half before racking up 21 points in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
Nick Wurster and Terry Dawn led the effort as they scored all of their combined 29 points in the first three periods. Wurster had 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and Dawn followed with 13.
Lars In’t Groen joined them in double figures with 12 points.
Kyler Purdin’s nine points paced Union City, and Chase Jefferis added eight.