Burnet boys basketball faces obstacles beyond opponents during holiday games
CAPTION: Burnet junior forward Garner Krause and the Bulldogs played in five games last week, all against Class 5A and 6A opponents. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School boys basketball team went 2-3 during games played Dec. 28-30.
The latest was a 55-39 loss to Cedar Park Vista Ridge Dec. 30 after the Bulldogs posted a 2-2 record at the Leander Glenn tournament.
“They kept bringing guys off the bench,” Burnet head coach Roy Kiser said. “Coming off the tournament, … we were down two starters with stomach virus or flu. We were up in the first quarter and down four at the half. Vista Ridge’s depth is what got us.”
He noted the Bulldogs held Vista Ridge junior forward Cade Hartley, who stands 6 feet and 7 inches and averages 15 points a contest, to single digits.
“I’m proud of that,” he said. “We don’t really (have) the height. But we held him to three points.”
At the tournament, Burnet beat Houston Willis 63-56 and Del Valle 60-46 and lost to Glenn, which won its own tournament, 54-41 and Waco University 52-38.
Not a bad showing for a program that took several days off because of the holiday.
“When you go to a 5A and 6A tournament, that’s respectable,” Kiser said. “We like to build our program on defense. For our guys to have that amount of time off and get into the swing of things coming off a break (says a lot). It took us about a day to get our shot back.”
He would have liked to have witnessed better results on the defensive side but noted the loss to Glenn came down to a number of factors, including finding more offense. Still the tournament revealed where the Bulldogs can improve, which is invaluable, Kiser said.
“Against these teams, we scored more in the half court,” he said. “On the second day, we got some transition buckets.”
As for conditioning, he noted high school athletes don’t need as much time to get back into playing shape and was pleased to see that happened after finishing several quarters.
Burnet welcomes Waco Robinson Tuesday, Jan. 3, to The Doghouse with subvarsities playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity following.
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