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| Return of Cozad sparks team to another title |
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| Sports - Boys Basketball | |||
| Written by Chris Geinosky | |||
| Thursday, 04 February 2010 00:00 | |||
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Grant Cozad returned to the court just in time. After missing time with an Achilles injury, the 6-foot-7 senior forward helped lift the Bulldogs to another tournament title. Cozad went for double digits in the scoring column in all three games last week as the Kearney High boys basketball team claimed the Cameron Tournament championship. “It was hard to watch from the bench,” Cozad said. “I felt like I was rusty, but it was good to get back out there.” Cozad didn’t look rusty. He averaged better than 13 points and five rebounds per game in the tournament for the Bulldogs (16-1) after missing the previous five games dating back to the winter holiday break. In the championship game Saturday, Jan. 30, against Cameron, Cozad dumped in 16 points and was the only player from either team to reach double figures in a 47-24 defensive slugfest. Despite foul trouble, Cozad was one of the only players to have success at the offensive end, connecting on 7 of 8 shot attempts from the field. “It was a tough game,” Cozad said. “Shots weren’t falling, so we had to do other things right. I was just trying to get the o-boards, putbacks — just clean up the rebounds.” Behind Cozad’s effort, Kearney shot well from inside (15 of 20 shots), but Cameron’s collapsing zone often forced the Bulldogs to pitch the ball around the perimeter where they hit a dreadful 1 of 17 attempts from long distance. Kearney dropped in only three shots from outside the lane, two baseline jumpers from Cozad and a banked-in 3-ball from Tyler Funk. However, the story wasn’t any different for Cameron at the other end of the court. The undersized Dragons had trouble finding good looks at the basket, and even when they did, shots wouldn’t go down. Cameron, which almost finished the game with more fouls (22) than points (24), hit only 28 percent of its shots (8 of 29) in the game. “On a night when shots weren’t falling, defensively we did a number on them,” Kearney coach Gary Belcher said. “You hold someone to 24 points in their own gym, you’ve done a whale of a job defensively. “Hat’s off to our kids. With the effort they put in, they deserved to win tonight.” Cameron coach Kevin Nichols could only agree with that sentiment after his team suffered its first loss in more than two weeks, since the semifinals of the Bulldog Classic in Kearney. “We got in foul trouble,” Nichols said. “That didn’t help us, but that’s no excuse. We turned the ball over a lot more than usual, and that’s a credit to Kearney. They did a great job of defense. “We knew we had a small margin of error to have a chance to win the game, and one of them was not get in foul trouble, one of them was shoot the ball real well and not turn it over, and another was to not let them outrebound us so bad. We didn’t do any one of those things. And we got kind of lucky. They didn’t shoot it real well from the perimeter tonight. They’re just a good team.” Kearney has accomplished a rare feat, winning all three regular-season tournaments. However, the Bulldogs still have one more important title to claim — districts. “We’ll savor this one,” Belcher said. “I’m not sure a Kearney team has ever won three regular-season tournaments before. It hasn’t happened in the last 15 years anyway. “Three tournament titles are nice, but it’s that fourth one that matters. That’s the most important one.”
Savannah 38 It took awhile, but the Bulldogs eventually imposed their will. Holding the Savages at arm’s length most of the night, Kearney’s defense finally took over. Scoring 36 of the final 41 points of the night, highlighted by four dunks, the Bulldogs turned a competitive contest into a laugher. Kearney outscored Savannah 26-2 in the fourth quarter. Seven different Bulldogs scored in the final frame, including Funk, who scored all eight of his points in the late-game surge. Dillon Starzl contributed a game-high 17 points, while Cozad and Alex Klonowski were right behind with 13 points each.
Chillicothe 25 Another balanced attack led to another blowout in the first round. Four Bulldogs scored in double figures, led by Klonowski’s 19, which included five 3-pointers. Cozad made his first appearance since the winter holiday break and scored 11 points. Kearney dominated the game from the get-go, jumping out to a 17-4 first-quarter lead. The Bulldogs continued to widen the advantage throughout the game and were never threatened.
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