HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
At St. John
St. John 55, Pratt-Skyline 46
ST. JOHN (1-0)
Brandon Blakeslee 7 0-4 15, Zack Minnis 6 0-2 14, Zach Achor 3 2-2 8, Kinser Crissman 1 2-4 4, Zuriel Reyes 2 0-0 4, Dace Mercer 2 0-0 4, Omar Ramirez 1 1-2 3, Ethan Long 1 0-3 2, Kade Kinnamon 0 1-2 1, Esai Macias 0 0-2 0. Totals 23 6-21 55.
Pratt-Skyline (0-1)
Easton Burgardt 4 2-4 10, Brandon Broce 5 0-2 10, Chase Lykins 2 3-4 8, Brennan Stotts 0 6-7 6, Aaron Hirt 2 2-4 6, Karson Becker 2 0-2 4, Devin Hacker 0 2-4 2. Totals 15 15-27 46.
St. John 15 10 16 14 — 55
Pratt-Skyline 12 6 15 13 — 46
Three-point goals— St. John 3 (Minnis 2, Blakeslee 1); Pratt-Skyline 1 (Lykins 1).
ST. JOHN — The St. John High School boys’ basketball team overcame shooting 6-for-21 from the free throw line to edge Skyline 55-46 on Friday night.
In a game where both teams combined for 13 fouls in the fourth quarter, the Tigers 28.5 percent free-throw shooting could have finished them.
Instead, St. John was able to gain ground on the Thunderbirds in every quarter.
“It’s good to play bad and win,” Tigers head coach Clint Kinnamon said. “We didn’t finish, missed free throws, missed open shots and missed layups.
“We want to play fast but we had some careless turnovers that you just can’t have.”
The Tigers were led by 5-foot-10 senior Brandon Blakeslee, who had 15 points, including one of only three 3s drained by St. John.
Zach Minnis, a 5-11 senior guard, hit the other two 3s on his way to scoring 14 for the Tigers.
Defensively, St. John had to contest with the Thunderbirds’ big man, 6-4 junior Easton Burgardt, who finished with a team-leading 10 points.
St. John’s own big man, 6-4 senior Zach Achor, was limited to some time off the bench because of an illness.
Even off the bench, Achor produced eight points while covering Burngardt in the first half and parts of the fourth quarter.
Kinnamon said that Achor only returned to school on Thursday and missed nearly a week of practice.
“It really hurt us, Achor, the big kid, we had to limit his minutes because he’s been sick,” Kinnamon said. “He didn’t come back to school until Thursday. When you’re out of practice since last Friday, he played like it.
“It hurt us because he’s our only size inside. Then we got into foul trouble with our other big kids in the first half. One time, I looked out and had five guards on the field.”
While Achor was on the bench, Kinnamon passed the task of covering Burngardt to 6-0 junior Ethan Long.
“I thought Ethan Long did a really good job on him,” Kinnamon said. “You know, he’s really only 6-foot tall but he’s really strong. He kind of limited Burngardt after the first quarter or two.”
Even with all of the negative things Kinnamon saw on the court, he said that his team can still improve.
“A win is a win, especially when you played poorly,” Kinnamon said. “The kids are pretty upset about how they played. I told them that’s the sign of a team that can do something if you played like we did and still pull off a win.”
