Maconaquah Schools

Varsity vs Kokomo High School (82 - 79) Win Coach Burrus Quotes: "All I can say is WOW!!! We beat Kokomo!!! The home win streak continues. It was a very challenging weekend. At Peru. Then, come home and play Kokomo. We wanted this group to get a shot at Kokomo. We came out early and pressed like we normally do. I realized early on full court pressure was not neccessary. Kokomo would create plenty of pace. Also, most teams have two or three good 3point shooters. They at times, had 5 legitimate 3point shooters on the floor. We had to guard everybody. Kokomo just simply doesn't lose to 3A public schools very often. This was an historic win for the Maconaquah Community. We pushed the ball hard at them. One telling stat was we were 3-7 from 3. Kokomo was 9-43 from 3!!! We also shot 49 free throws to their 13. I thought we shot more free throws because we went to the basket. We don't foul 3 point shooters. Half of Kokomo's shots were 3point attempts. And Kokomo was pressing, hard. We were back playing half-court defense. This lead to our huge free throw advantage. We had plenty of heroes. I will start with AJ Kelly. He was chased by 2 and 3 guys all night, full court. It was fun to watch AJ just keep coming. He was relentless, to say the least. He scored 17 points and drew 10 fouls!!! He simply refused to lose. Josiah Ball played great and hit 11-13 free throws. Those were big. It was fun to watch Josiah against a team that wanted a full-court game. I think we showed we can run with Kokomo. He scored 25 points in 3 quarters because of fouls. Some coaches would have put him on the bench longer but we had the lead. We gambled and he did foul out but we were able to run some clock with him out. If we kept him out we may not have had that big of a lead. He played great when he was in there. Fuddy Kile just did it all in this game. He had another double-double. 17 points and 13 rebounds. He got some monster rebounds against the big kid for Kokomo(#35). He also hit 8-14 free throws. Those were big down the stretch. Devon Murry has become a legitimate threat for us. He did a great job releasing and getting fast-break buckets for us. He hit a big 3 in the corner in the second half. He also secured the rebound to end the game. Played great defense throughout. What a thrill for him. Proud of Murry.We have all watched him improve before our eyes. Landon Adams hit a big 3 in the second half, too. He helped handle the ball and worked hard to guard on defense. Landon has really improved his defense. He scored 7 big points we had to have. His driving left hand layup showed is progress. Nate Rader and Caiden Richards came in and really helped us on both ends. For our team to beat Kokomo with Josiah Ball sitting a whole quarter was a real credit to the resiliency of this team!!! Another thing I would like to share is a thank you to our Brave Nation. To come back with that kind of support AFTER coming out on Friday at Peru was just awesome for our team. Thank you for being part of it. Thanks for giving your time to Maconaquah. We needed all of you. As I looked up and saw Rick Clark standing, excited at the end I had a feeling of tradition at Mac. Looking around, seeing all the former players, all the loyal fans... This win was for ALL of Maconaquah. Congratulations!!! We ALL beat Kokomo. Thank You for being part of this community!!! Go Braves!!!" Ball 25pts 7reb 1ast 1st Kelly 17pts 8reb 4ast 1st Kile 17pts 13reb 4ast Murry 16pts 9reb 3ast 1bl 1st Adams. L. 7pts 2reb 5ast 1st Rader 1reb