Sports
Braves launch air raid
Matthew Semisch
01/27/2015
The first time you lay eyes upon Jacob Kvernum on a basketball court, your mind most likely draws the same conclusion that many others’ do.
The Bottineau High center, standing at 6-foot-4, is the Braves’ tallest player. It stands to reason, then, that he would be a key kog in BHS’s inside game when the Braves have the ball.
He is, but that’s not all he is to his team. As Westhope-Newburg (W-N) found out on Thursday in Westhope, he’s also a threat to not only fire shots from the perimeter but drain them, too.
During the Braves’ 64-35 rout against W-N in Westhope, Kvernum posted a game-high 20 points. Nowhere near half of them, however, were scored down low around the hoop.
Sixteen of Kvernum’s points against the Sioux were scored from beyond the three-point line. He was BHS’s leading long-distance threat on Thursday, draining all four of his shots from the perimeter.
“I’ve always known he could shoot,” BHS head coach Nate Simpson said of Kvernum, “but the thing I like about Jake is he kind of knows his limitations when he’s got the ball.
“He’ll step out and try a shot from deep and, if it goes, he might step out and try another one but if it doesn’t go down, he’ll stick to the inside. He doesn’t let his shooting dominate the game, and he’ll shoot the ball from distance to keep the defenders honest but he can also get down low and shoot around the rim.”
Kvernum was as close to automatic offensively as anyone was in the Westhope Public School gym on Thursday. On top of his 20 points, he finished the game with seven rebounds and an assist and shot 8-for-12 from the field.
Speaking after the game, Kvernum admitted that he’s normally camped near the basket when the Braves are on offense.
He also said, though, that Thursday was different. Against the Sioux (now 0-11), he knew he had a hot hand and decided to try it out from further afield.
“I’m usually more of an inside guy, but I was feeling the stroke and was finishing a few shots,” he said, “so I was able to hit some from outside and help the team.
“I don’t think Westhope really expected that from me because I’m kind of a big guy and don’t shoot too many threes, but it worked out.”
Kvernum’s educated guess as to the Sioux’s plan for him was correct.
W-N head coach Bob Beaudrie said after Thursday’s game that he knew that Bottineau (5-6) had several deep threats. He didn’t think, however, that Kvernum would prove to be so deadly from the outside.
“We had talked in practice all week about how if we leave Bottineau open to shoot, they’re going to shoot. Parker Engelhard can hits shots from anywhere inside the halfway line and if he’s hot he’s going to make them, same with Bryce (Haerer), that Max Henry kid, same thing.
“It didn’t surprise me that much, but the big kid surprised me stepping out and hitting threes. I’d seen him do it before but not to that extent, and not with kids in his face like we actually did have in the second half, and that surprised me a little, but when it comes to shooting, that momentum can take you a long way.”
In all, the Braves hit half (8-for-16) of their three-point attempts on Thursday. Engelhard made two of his six attempts from the perimeter, and Haerer and Henry both hit one each.
Bottineau controlled the game throughout and won all four quarters. The rout started early when BHS opened the game on a 12-4 run and never looked back.
The Braves were more than comfortable at halftime thanks to the 30-13 lead they took into the break. Beaudrie felt that the Sioux weren’t able to cope with Bottineau’s work rate over the first 16 minutes of play.
“They out-hustled us in every way, shape and form in that first half,” Beaudrie said. “In the second half we played a little better and a lot more aggressive, but we dug ourselves into a pretty big hole in that first half and that was tough to get out of.
“Bottineau’s riding their momentum and they kept things going, and we tried to match their pace but they had the momentum on their side for too long.”
Bottineau wasn’t quite as lethal from distance in the second half, but it didn’t have to be. The Braves began to find more and more opportunities nearer the rim over the final two quarters and took advantage of that.
“We started hitting some deep shots in the first half,” Simpson said, “and, with the lead at halftime that we had, I told the guys that we want to go down low and get our shots there and get free throws and easy buckets.
“The kids did a good job of getting the ball inside and getting points down there as well as outside.”
In the end, three Braves finished in double-digits in scoring. Engelhard, who went 6-for-11 from the field on Thursday, finished with 18 points, while forward Alex Bristol had 10.
The teams’ head coaches had starkly contrasting feelings following the game. Westhope felt it had taken a step backward, while Bottineau knew it had progressed.
“This was a little bit of a step back after we thought we were on the right path in the past few games before this,” Beaudrie said.
Simpson had an entirely different view of the state of his own team.
“We came in here and I thought we played pretty well tonight. I thought it was one of our better rebounding efforts on the year and obviously one of our better defensive efforts, and I thought our kids played well.
“Westhope’s never an easy place to play in, and they play really hard defense and stick to you, so for our kids to stay composed with that going on and shoot the ball well and have a good defensive game is encouraging.”