Dawson Lilly (14) of the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers skies for a shot attempt over Riverside's Todd Douglas during the first-quarter of their non-conference contest Saturday afternoon at the high-school. Lilly scored 13 points against Riverside in B-U's 73-55 victory. Two days earlier, Lilly had a game-high 24 against Philip Barbour in an 80-53 win.
TENNERTON – With the varsity roster down to seven players due to a pair of injuries and a two-game suspension because of an ejection at the Elkins game last Saturday, things looked bleak for the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneer basketball program heading into a two-game home stretch late last week.
Instead those still standing in B-U uniforms stepped up their games and took it to the Philip Barbour Colts Thursday and the Riverside Warriors Saturday afternoon recording a pair of blow-out victories.
The Bucs downed Philip Barbour by an 80-53 score in a Big 10 Conference battle and then defeated Riverside 73-55 in a non-conference.
The Colts had no answer for Dawson Lilly in Thursday's game.
The senior guard was simply too quick for the Colt defense with his slashing style of play, scoring a game-high 24 points.
The only way the Colts could slow down Lilly was to foul him and send him to the line, but that didn't work either as he made eight of 10 attempts from the free throw line.
"Dawson had a great game and really stepped up as a senior leader for us," Foster noted.
The Colts also had no answers for the rebounding prowess of Brayden Cutlip and Ryan Strader who hauled down 11 and 10 rebounds respectively.
"Both players really dominated the boards." Foster added.
The Bucs were slow out of the gate against the Colts falling behind by a 15-8 score but Cutlip turned in a old-fashioned three-point play, and after a jumper by the Colts Noah Matlick, freshman guard Mason Hyre uncorked a 3-pointer to make it a 17-14 contest with 2:40 left in the opening quarter.
The Colts went ahead 19-14, but B-U scored the last 11 points of the quarter.
Ryan Hurst scored on a lay-up, Hyre knocked down a jumper, Cutlip put in a rebound, Lilly turned in a three-point play and Strader nailed a putback to treat the Bucs to a 25-19 advantage heading into the second quarter.
Leading by a 36-32 score with 3:22 left in the half, the Bucs went on a 7-0 run.
Lilly unleashed a trey, made a foul shot, Tyler Sandreth scored inside and Cutlip flipped in a pair of free throws as the Bucs took a 43-32 lead.
Matlick hit a jumper in the paint to close out the second quarter, but Buckhannon-Upshur led at the break, 43-34.
Up 45-36, the Bucs scored eight straight behind Hurst hitting a jumper, Strader putting in consecutive baskets and Cutlip capping off the run with a lay-up as B-U took a commanding 53-36 lead with 3:10 left in the third quarter.
Jesiah Matlick ended the run with a basket for the Colts but B-U scored six straight for a 59-38 lead with 2:10 remaining in the quarter.
The Bucs took a 62-42 lead going into the fourth-quarter.
B-U scored the first four points of the final quarter for a 66-42 lead, and after a pair of free throws by the Colts, Strader scored on a putback to give the Bucs a 68-44 advantage.
Lilly scored five points in a 32-second span to increase the Buckhannon-Upshur margin to 73-48.
B-U's biggest lead of 27 points came at the end of the game.
B-U shot a healthy 52.7 percent from the floor hitting on 29 of their 55 field goals.
Following Lilly in the scoring column was Cutlip with a double-double of 16 points and his 11 rebounds and Hyre who tallied 14 points and yanked down seven rebounds.
Hurst reached double digits with 12 points while Strader just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Kiyan Bartlett led the Colts with 10 points.
The Bucs never trailed in their contest with the Warriors behind Cutlip's double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds.
Up 9-4, Hurst sank a 3-pointer and Cutlip grabbed a rebound and put it in to give the Bucs a 14-4 lead with 1:31 left in the opening quarter.
Riverside closed the period with a 6-0 run but the Bucs still led by four, at 14-10.
Cutlip scored the first four points of the second quarter, and after Riverside matched that, Will McCauley scored on a lay-up to give the Bucs a 20-14 lead with 2:44 gone in the second quarter.
Still nursing a five-point lead, at 23-18, Lilly canned a 3-pointer and Cutlip scored on a jumper as the Bucs started to pull away with a 28-18 advantage with 2:27 left in the half.
B-U went into the intermission up nine, at 33-24.
Riverside started the third quarter with a 7-2 run to close the gap to 35-31, but Strader knocked down a pair of free throws, Hurst scored on a rebound and later added a free throw and Strader scored again on another putback to increase the Buckhannon-Upshur lead to 11, at 42-31.
The closest the Warriors could get to the Bucs the rest of the third quarter was eight points as Buckhannon-Upshur owned a 54-40 lead going into the final eight minutes.
The Bucs biggest lead was 23, at 73-50, following a jumper in the paint by Strader, with 44 seconds remaining.
Three other Bucs joined Cutlip in double digits as Hurst scored 16, Lilly 13 and McCauley 12.
Cutlip and Strader both had a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Bucs outrebounded Riverside by a 50-39 margin.
They also turned the ball over a season-low nine times.
Jevante Elzy led Riverside with 16 points while Caden Eastering scored 15.
The pair of wins put the Bucs at 8-6 overall and 7-3 in the Big 10 Conference heading into a busy four-game schedule this week.
The Bucs will host Bridgeport Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and then visit Lewis County Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
They will then travel to Beckley this Friday and Saturday for the Big Atlantic Classic.
At press time, the Classic schedule was still in a state of flux and had not been finalized.
Jedidiah Hawkins 3-6 0-0 6, Colton Criss 2-8 2-4 7, Noah Matlick 3-5 0-2 6, Gage Bibey 1-4 0-0 3, Thomas Knight 1-4 1-1 3, Trent Tallman 0-2 0-0 0, Daniel Weingart 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Ball 1-5 0-0 2, Levi MacAdam 4-12 0-0 8, Noah Ward 0-0 0-0 0, Kiyan Bartlett 4-4 2-2 10, Josh Watson 1-4 0-0 2, Mason Campbell 1-5 0-0 2, Jesiah Matlick 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 23-64 5-9 53.
Ryan Hurst 5-6 2-2 12, Mason Hyre 5-10 2-2 14, Will McCauley 0-2 0-0 0, Tyler Sandreth 1-3 1-2 3, Dawson Lilly 7-13 8-10 24, Zach White 1-1 0-1 2, Ryan Strader 4-4 1-2 9, Brayden Cutlip 6-15 4-7 16, Harrison Walker 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-55 18-26 80.
Three-point field goals – Philip Barbour: Criss 1-5, Bibey 1-4, Knight 0-2, Ball 0-2, MacAdam 0-2, Hawkins 0-1, Tallman 0-1, Watson 0-1, Campbell 0-1. Totals 2-19; Buckhannon-Upshur: Lilly 2-2, Hyre 2-5, McCauley 0-1, Sandreth 0-1. Totals 4-9.
Rebounds – Philip Barbour: Knight 5, MacAdam 5, Hawkins 3, Criss 2, Ball 2, Barlett 2, Matlick 1, Bibey 1, Tallman 1, Weingart 1, team 7, deadball 2. Totals 32; Buckhannon-Upshur: Cutlip 11, Strader 10, Hyre 7, Lilly 6, Hurst 4, McCauley 2, Sandreth 2, team 2, deadball 3. Totals 47.
Assists – Philip Barbour: Bibey 3, Hawkins 2, Criss 2, Matlick 1, MacAdam 1. Totals 9; Buckhannon-Upshur: Lilly 5, Hurst 2, Hyre 2, Sandreth 1, White 1, Strader 1, Cutlip 1. Totals 13.
Steals – Philip Barbour: Knight 1, Weingart 1, MacAdam 1, Watson 1, Campbell 1, J. Matlick 1. Totals 6; Buckhannon-Upshur: Strader 3, Lilly 2, Hurst 1, McCauley 1, Sandreth 1, Cutlip 1. Totals 9.
Blocks – Philip Barbour: Bartlett 1, Campbell 1, J. Matlick 1. Totals 3; Buckhannon-Upshur: Hyre 1, Cutlip 1. Totals 2.
Personal fouls – Philip Barbour: 24; Buckhannon-Upshur: 13.
Turnovers – Philip Barbour: 13; Buckhannon-Upshur: 15.
Jeremiah Mason 1-5 0-0 2, Caden Easterling 7-15 0-3 15, Richie Walker 1-5 0-2 2, Jevante Elzy 6-18 0-4 16, Brian Massey 0-5 2-2 2, Josh Arthur 1-1 0-0 2, Todd Douglas 2-7 2-2 7, Drake Bryant 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Nichols 1-2 3-3 5, Alec Hess 2-2 0-0 4, Jaden Booker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-61 11-16 55.
Ryan Hurst 7-16 1-2 16, Mason Hyre 1-4 0-0 3, Will McCauley 5-6 2-3 12, Tyler Sandreth 0-1 0-0 0, Dawson Lilly 4-15 3-4 13, Ryan Strader 2-4 2-2 6, Brayden Cutlip 9-16 5-11 23, Harrison Walker 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-63 13-22 73.
Three-point field goals – Riverside: Easterling 1-5, Douglas 1-4, Massey 0-5, Elzy 0-4. Totals 2-18; Buckhannon-Upshur: Lilly 2-5, Hurst 1-4, Hyre 1-3, McCauley 0-1, Sandreth 0-1. Totals 4-14.
Rebounds – Riverside: Douglas 10, Mason 4, Easterling 4, Walker 3, Elzy 3, Massey 3, Bryant 2, Hess 2, team 6, deadball 2. Totals 39; Buckhannon-Upshur: Cutlip 13, Strader 13, Lilly 8, Hurst 6, Hyre 3, McCauley 3, team 1, deadball 3. Totals 50.
Assists – Riverside: Walker 2, Elzy 2, Mason 1, Massey 1, Arthur 1, Douglas 1, Bryant 1, Hess 1. Total 10; Buckhannon-Upshur: Lilly 7, Hurst 2, Cutlip 2, Hyre 1, Sandreth 1. Totals 13.
Steals – Riverside: Easterling 1, Arthur 1, Hess 1. Totals 3; Buckhannon-Upshur: Hurst 3, Strader 3, Cutlip 1. Totals 7.
Blocked shots – Riverside: Mason 1, Douglas 1. Totals 2; Buckhannon-Upshur: Cutlip 2, Lilly 1. Totals 3.
Personal fouls – Riverside: 15; Buckhannon-Upshur 14.
Turnovers – Riverside: 11; Buckhannon-Upshur: 9.