Edinburgh’s boys basketball team had no answer for Hauser’s dynamic duo of Bryce Bates and Jackson Paradise, who led the visiting Jets to a 58-41 victory Friday night.
Each found success in his own way, as Bates did his damage from inside to the tune of a game-high 26 points and Paradise showed off his ability to drive to the basket as well as knock down shots from the outside while scoring 20.
“Because of our size, Bryce has to play a lot in the post, and he is just scratching the surface of his ability,” Hauser coach Joe Sibbett said. “When he plays well, he takes a lot of pressure off of Trey (Johnson), who teams are paying a lot of attention to, and rightly so.”
The Jets led 15-11 after one quarter of play, with Bates leading the way, scoring eight of Hauser’s points. It was the second quarter, however, when Paradise exerted his dominance on the offensive end, scoring 13 points.
“Jackson hasn’t been shooting well, so to see him hit a couple of shots from the outside was good. That should give him some confidence moving forward,” Sibbett stated.
That, coupled with a suffocating Jets’ defense, blew the game wide open. Hauser (3-4, 1-1 Mid-Hoosier) held the Lancers to just four points in the quarter while scoring 23 to head into the break with a 38-15 lead.
Sibbett reflected on the defensive performance.
“We have not played zone through our first five games, and when a team has some quickness, they have been hurting us by getting to the basket. Tonight, we played exclusively zone, and although we have work to do, it wasn’t too bad.”
Edinburgh came out for the second half undeterred by the deficit. Although they only trimmed Hauser’s lead by three points at quarter’s end, they showed fight. Freshman Caleb Dewey and junior Isaac Roberts were a big part the Lancers’ effort to play Hauser even after halftime, leading Edinburgh with 13 points each on the night.
Unfortunately for the Lancers, the early deficit was too much to overcome.
“We weren’t patient at all in the second quarter,” Edinburgh coach Keith Witty said. “We need to be more patient to get what we want, and for some reason we didn’t do that in the second quarter. We also fouled a bit too much, and you can’t foul good shooters the way we did.”
The Lancers (2-4, 2-1) were able to hold their own after the break. Overall, they outscored Hauser 26-20 in the second half, which is what Witty wanted to see.
“I challenged them at halftime. I told them that they needed to show heart and desire no matter the score, and for the most part, I thought they did that. We did a good job of battling back.”
