Outside The County-Maconaquah

Results from Maconaquah for Wednesday, February 1st

Maconaquah High School Boys Varsity Basketball beat Bellmont 60-47

The Braves advanced with a hard-fought win against a good Bellmont team.

The Braves play the second game Friday vs #2 Norwell. We are now 16-7.

Coach Burrus Quote: “I wanted to thank all the fans who came out to give us a home-court advantage against Bellmont. Friday night will be a huge challenge but with your help we will have a chance to get Norwell. I liked our effort against Bellmont. We will have to cut turnovers down against Norwell to win. Josiah Ball was huge for us. He scored 23 points in 3 quarters. MJ Ellis was big on both ends. 12 points and 9 rebounds was a big plus for us. I liked our defense. It was good enough. Also, being able to run clock the last couple of minutes realy helped.

Note- Bauer Maple. He did it. What a year and career he has had and is not done. It was pretty cool how they allowed him to celebrate this huge accomplishment. He has scored 604 points this year. The Kokomo Tribune had good coverage of this, this morning. We have got to see Bauer be part of Maconaquah Basketball History. We all are all part of the history, too. His teammates have ALL had a part in this. Everyone on the team is proud of Bauer, and thankful to be his teammate. That says a lot! Getting to witness him chasing down these records has been one of the highlights of my coaching career. He will always be remembered as an all-time great. Just like this year we have heard about Matt Golitko and other former great players here. Someday, a player will come along and challenge these records. It may be 10, 20, or even 30 years from now like Matt Golitko back in the 90’s. But we will remember. And we will say, I saw Bauer Maple play. I saw him set those records. I watched him grow up to be that player. Yes, we will remember…Bauer Maple. 1000 point scorer. Single season scoring record. 604 points and climbing.

Note 2- I would get to the game early. This will be a big crowd Friday. Parking will be a challenge. Our sections will be the same as The Bellmont game. We will be sharing with Oak Hill. They will bring a bunch of people. Peru vs Oak Hill will be packed. Should be a great game, too.

The Norwell coach is Mike McBride. His son is number 24. Mike played at Bethel and is part of the Bethel coaching tree. He does a great job getting the most out of players. I have coached against him when he was at Triton. His son is the all-time leading scorer in Norwell history. They are very good and play a relentless style. We’ll see what we can do with them. Going to be a big challenge.

Jim Gish and Northwestern played great. You never underestimate a Jim Gish team. One year I had a player that needed under 10 points for 1000 and we were playing Northwestern. The officials were talking about stopping the game. Gish was thinking and had a plan to shut him down. The rest of the story was the player FINALLY got his 1000th point late in the 4th quarter. Northwestern was really good last night. Even if Northwestern would have won they would have been a big challenge, too. Great job Northwestern, and Coach Gish.

We will see you, Friday. Be Loud and Proud. Go Braves!!!”

Ball 23pts 7reb 3ast 2st

Maple 19pts 6reb 4ast 3st

Ellis 12pts 9reb 1ast 1bl 1st

Kelly 4pts 2reb 5ast 1st

Kile 2pts 4reb 1ast 1st

Zeiser 5reb 1bl 2st