Bears Ride Emotional Roller Coaster, Outlast Aces 51-41

In a Saturday night non-league matchup, the Bryan boys basketball team traveled to Hicksville to defeat a tough Aces squad, 51-41. Bryan was without Austin Schimmoeller, who sat out with a nagging foot injury. It took a while for Bryan to find its groove.

The Bears, perhaps emotionally drained from Friday night's OT home victory against Delta, came out flat in the first quarter, being outscored 14-5. The Aces' pressure defense forced some turnovers, and the Bears went a few minutes to start without a FG attempt.

From the second quarter on, however, the Bears outscored Hicksville 46-27. Bryan ramped up its own defense, doing a great job on the boards and limiting the Aces' offensive attack.

Bryan was led by Thomas Martin, who posted a double-double (12 pts, 11 boards). Jason Hug played tremendous defense, and scored 10 in victory. The Bill's Locker Room III / Bryansports.com player of the game was Jake Jones, who had 10 points and was the emotional sparkplug the Bears needed.

Hicksville's ace tonight was Conner Yoder, who poured in 19 points and played tough on both sides of the ball. Jonny Giesige had 7 points, while Garrett Crall and Chad Klima had 6 points apiece in defeat.

With the win, the Bears improve to 9-7 overall, while the Aces fall to 5-11.  Bryan is off until next Friday night when they travel to Swanton for an important league game.