Disjointed, sputtering offense dooms Highland boys basketball team against Jerseyville

There was a glaring lack of flow to the Highland basketball team’s offensive sets when they faced Mississippi Valley Conference foe Jerseyville on Friday, Jan 28.

A five-plus minute scoring drought stalled the Bulldogs offense early and, after trailing by 15 at halftime, HHS ultimately dropped a 50-36 decision at home to Jerseyville.

The loss was the fourth straight for Highland (3-4 in Mississippi Valley Conference action) and left coach Deryl Cunningham puzzled as to what is causing the team’s scoring struggles.

“I think we just weren’t hitting on all cylinders and I think we base so much on when something goes wrong offensively, I think it (then) really affects us defensively,” said Cunnigham, whose team never scored more than 11 points in a quarter against the Panthers. “We did get open shots and we didn’t get the rebound out of them. Guys are trying and playing hard, but the problem is we’re not doing it as one unit.”

An 8-0 run keyed by Jaxon Burnaugh’s trey and a pair of foul shots pushed the Panthers out to an early advantage. Highland went scoreless for the first 5 minutes, 32 seconds of the game before a Grant Fleming free throw cut the Panthers lead to 8-1.

Brendan Gelly knocked down a 3-pointer that trimmed the margin to 13-8 with 57 seconds left in the quarter, but Jerseyville answered with a pair of buckets in the final 57 seconds to take a 17-8 lead in the second quarter.

A Joe Jansen putback got HHS within 20-14 with 5:15 left in the second quarter but an Edward Roberts basket kickstarted a 10-3 surge that gave the Panthers a 32-17 lead at the break.

“We’re not reading the game and we’re not reading the defense (right now),” Cunningham said. “It’s like we’re playing off instincts, but I to try convince the guys that we need better ball movement and to let the ball do the work for us. I think we search for plays too much sometimes.”

Highland pulled within 11 late in the third quarter as Cade Altadonna converted a traditional three-point play, cutting the lead to 36-25.

From there, the Highland offense reverted into disjointed sets with stagnant ball movement as Jerseyville pulled away in the fourth quarter.

“I just think with our ball movement, we’ve got too many guys holding the ball too much instead of really letting the ball work through the offense,” Cunningham said. “It seems like when we do score it doesn’t seem like we get many easy baskets and that’s a big part of basketball.”

Roberts led Jerseyville (11-10, 3-3) with 10 points, and Tanner Brunaugh added 9 points. Jake Ottensmeier paced the Bulldogs with 12 points and Altadonna scored 9 points.

Highland dropped to 9-16 overall following a 48-38 loss to Breese Central on Saturday, Jan. 29.

This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 1:39 AM.