Cardinals punished

By James Storbeck.
BCC men’s basketball team took care of business Wednesday night, defeating the Skagit Valley Cardinals 71 – 60, in a game that was never in any real jeopardy. The game started out sloppy for both teams, but after being tied at four points each, the Bulldogs were able to go on an 11 point run to take a lead that they never relinquished. Leading the charge in the first half were guards Bren Hobzek and Pete Harris, scoring 10 points each, the Bulldogs taking a 40 – 25 lead into halftime. “We played really good defense. Defense is the key right now, and it’s what gave us the lead in the first half,” Jeremy Eggers said during the interval. Good defense indeed. In the first half, the Bulldogs were able to force the Cardinals to surrender 18 turnovers, while only giving up 6 themselves. They also capitalized upon the opposition’s indecisive play, leading in steals, 9 – 4. Offensively, the Bulldogs battled harder to maintain possession, leading Skagit at the buzzer 10 — 4 in rebounds. In the second half, BCC had the ability to stave off a Cardinal comeback. A big part of this was the work of guard Curron Singleton, who scored 11 of his 19 points in the second half, as well as hitting two threes to kill two separate Cardinal rallies. “We had a bad game against Olympic, so we were looking to pick it up defensively, as well as work the ball around offensively, since a lot of teams throw a 3-2 zone against us,” said Singleton after the game. BCC did just that, passing the ball rapidly until finding an open shot, doing so without surrendering one steal in the second half. The Skagit Valley Cardinal’s last opportunity came with 4:51 left in the second half, when a Bulldogs player was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. However, the BCC defense was able to clamp down once again and cause a few more turnovers to seal the game. With their win, the BCC Bulldogs improve to 16-4 on the season, and 5-2 in the division, solidifying their position at number two in the NWAACC North Division, behind only Olympic Community College.