Puxico stays hot, downs Twin Rivers to open new year

BROSELEY — Fresh off winning the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament, the Puxico Indians did not not miss a beat as they opened the new year with a 65-37 win over the Twin Rivers Royals on Friday night.

Both teams came in fresh off of victories last Monday in the last day of the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament, with Twin Rivers knocking off Bloomfield 61-40 for the seventh-place consolation bracket title, and Puxico beating Dexter 64-60 in overtime to celebrate the tournament championship.

Puxico played like champions again on Friday, showing patience after a slow start to build a lead in the first quarter that they wouldn’t be close to giving up for the rest of game. Twin Rivers, on the other hand, struggled to find an offensive rhythm and turned the ball over too often to have a chance to mount a comeback.

“I feel like we competed, but we didn’t play a full game,” said Twin Rivers coach Austin Birmingham. “We had moments where we let them go on short runs that ultimately added up to a 27-point loss.”

The Indians’ leading scorer was Landan Burchard with a game-high 19 points, while three of his teammates also scored in double digits.

The Royals were led in scoring by Chadyn Bell with 12 points.

Twin Rivers saw its record fall to 9-5 on the season, while Puxico improved to 10-1.

The game began with tough defense for both teams, with Twin Rivers’ Luke Hester scoring the first field goal three minutes into the first quarter. Puxico matched the Royals and then used its range from beyond the 3-point arc to build a 14-6 lead at the end of the period.

The Royals responded in the second quarter with an 8-4 run that caused Puxico to call a timeout up 18-14 with 4:36 remaining in the half.

The timeout worked for the Indians, who responded with a 7-0 run to push their lead to 25-14 at 3:08 to go in the second.

Puxico scored four more points and kept Twin Rivers off the scoreboard for the rest of the second to take a 29-14 lead into the locker room at the half.

The Royals struggled to score in the third quarter, while the Indians saw most of their starters contribute to a 11-6 run that put them up 40-20 with four minutes left in the third. From that point, Twin Rivers outscored Puxico 8-5, but still ended the quarter down 45-28.

Whether from beyond the arc or in the paint, Twin Rivers continued to struggle to score points, only managing two points in the first 4:35 of the fourth quarter. Conversely, Puxico seemed to score at will from anywhere, increasing its lead to 56-30 in the same time frame.

“We missed a lot of easy layups around the rim,” Birmingham said. “We were trying to be more patient, but the shots just didn’t roll our way.”

Both teams put in their bench players for the end of the game, with the Indians outscoring the Royals 20-9 in the fourth quarter.