Burnet boys basketball concludes road trip with loss to Liberty Hill
CAPTION: Burnet senior guard Lane Murphy is one of five returning starters for the Bulldogs this season. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School boys basketball team is off to a 6-8 start after the 51-48 loss to Liberty Hill Dec. 13.
The contest went back and forth with neither rival willing to give an inch. Every time the Panthers thought they were going to pull away, the Bulldogs responded with timely shooting until the very end when Liberty Hill got a rebound and took advantage of offensive opportunities to put the contest away.
Burnet has five returning starters: senior Hudson Bennett and Lane Murphy and juniors Baylor Dawes, Andre Miller and Reese Syphrett, who are all guards.
That gives head coach Roy Kiser options on scoring, he said.
“We can have multiple scorers on any given night,” he said. “Against Cedar Ridge (Dec. 9), all five starters had 11 points or more.”
The Bulldogs also welcomed several new faces to the squad: guards Jacob Atkinson, Trey Petty and Cade Shaw and posts Garner Krause, who are all juniors; guard Andrew Tyler and posts Braden Ellett-Clark and Moses Solis, who are all seniors; and freshman post Layne Holder.
But it’s not just the scoring that has pleased the coach.
“I like the speed at which we play,” he said. “We are usually in every game because of our ability to shoot the ball from the 3-point line.”
All of that will be important as Burnet continues to prepare for District 24-4A play that includes Georgetown Gateway, Jarrell, Lago Vista, Lampasas and Marble Falls.
“It’s going to be physical and a dog fight each and every game,” Kiser said. “We have the potential to contend for a district championship, and that is our goal. But we know that each district opponent will have strengths that we will have to contend with in order to have a chance to do that.”
Burnet will play at The Doghouse Friday, Dec. 19, when they welcome Pflugerville Connally at 5 p.m. for its first game since last playing at home Nov. 22.
“(The long road trip was) the result of honoring previous commitments and adding new teams to the schedule this year,” the coach said. “As it turns out, we will play the majority of the second round of district on the road, so the road schedule should help get us ready for that.”
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