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Broncos take ‘mo’ away from Cougars

Dennis Grall | Daily Press Hunter Debelak of Bark River-Harris is confronted by Superior Central defenders Beau Rondeau, left, and Lucas Kanerva in the third quarter Thursday at Harris. Debelak had 24 points as BR-H won 58-38.

HARRIS — Taking momentum into halftime is normally a decisive commodity, but Bark River-Harris didn’t let that happen for Superior Central here Thursday.

Instead the Broncos somehow grabbed “mighty Mo” in the third quarter and broke open a close game, stunning Central with a 19-6 burst in that period to create a 58-38 victory in the Skyline Central Conference boys basketball game.

It also marked the first victory for coach Mark Zawacki and balanced the Broncos’ ledger at 1-1. Central is also 1-1.

Hunter Debelak was a big reason the Cougars were unable to retain that halftime mojo, producing nine of his game-best 24 points in the third quarter. He buried two triples in that canto and had a stretch of four straight baskets in a span of 3:43 as the Broncos scored the opening 11 points of the stanza.

“We hit the big three at the half and thought that would be a big momentum swing and carry us,” Central coach Branson Richard said of going into the lockerroom with a big boost. However, he said “we kind of fell flat.”

Zawacki was leery about that potential momentum swing, but knew what prevented that from happening. “Hunter came out and had a big third quarter,” said Zawacki. “He was feeling it and we tried to get him some looks. We needed him to step up.”

The Broncos opened the game by scoring the initial five points, all by Debelak, as the result of two steals. After Central went up 7-5 for its’ only lead of the night, BR-H reeled off the final nine points to close the quarter. The Cougars tied the game at 18 and 20 as the Broncos hit the next four points before Jack Rondeau’s triple above the key with a second left pulled SC within 24-23 at the break.

Then Debelak took charge and gave the Broncos the momentum most observers figured would rest with Superior Central to start the third quarter.

Zawacki credited “more aggressive offense and certainly more aggressive defense” for helping reject Central’s momentum-swinging effort in the second half.

“Their guards are as quick as they come,” Zawacki said of seniors Roubens Fink and Beau Rondeau.

However, that duo only combined for 15 points. “There is no replacement for defense,” Zawacki said.

The Broncos made it difficult for the Cougars to penetrate during that game-turning stretch. “We’re not a big team. We have to do the little things right,” said Zawacki. “We need to play senior basketball and know when to slow down and what are good shots and what are bad shots.”

Richards said the BR-H defense “got into our head” after intermission. “I told them I wanted to work it into the post and told the guards to look at passing the ball and I think they were thinking that too much.

“They really put on more defensive pressure. It broke us,” he said.

Senior Gage DeGrave came off the bench to contribute 12 points for the Broncos. Senior DJ johns, one of four returning starters, led the Cougars with 11 points.

The BR-H jayvees won 38-27.

Central makes its home debut Monday in a rematch of the season opener by hosting Big Bay de Noc while the Broncos host Florence, Wis. Tuesday.

Superior Central 7 16 6 9 — 38

Bark River-Harris 14 10 19 15 — 58

Superor Central – J. Rondeau 8, B. Rondeau 7, Johns 11, Kanerva 4, Fink 8. FT: 9-13; F: 22: Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals – J. Rondeau 2, Johns 1.

Bark River-Harris – DeGraves 12, Jarvis 1, Stenberg 4, Schmitt 2, Javurek 8, Viau 2, Zawacki 5, Debelak 24. FT: 12-22; F: 15; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals – Debelak 3, Javurek 1.

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