Shakin' it up

They may not win the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A title, but Bunker Hill High's Bears want their paw print on the race.

Tuesday night, the Bears shook up the conference standings with a key 68-58 win on the road over Bandys.

Bunker Hill (10-7, 4-3) shot 60.8 percent in the second half and 50 percent overall to deal the Trojans (12-5, 5-2) their first home loss this season.

A fourth league loss would have dropped Bunker Hill four games back of league-leading West Caldwell and at least two back of Bandys and Newton-Conover.

Now, if West Caldwell wins at Newton-Conover tonight, the Bears will be one game out of second place.

To create the stir, Bunker Hill head coach Matt Wilkinson said his team played its best game of the year.

"It was by far our best execution game," he said. "This is huge. We knew to have a chance to stay up toward the top we had to get a game on the road against a top level team.

"We're not thinking league title but a game at a time, get wins and see what happens."

The Bears could have 6-foot-7 Jeremy Null, who has missed the last 12 games with a stress fracture in his foot, back in two weeks, Wilkinson said.

Against Bandys, the Bears rallied to win after the Trojans had a 9-1 run to lead 38-31 with four minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter.

Tyler Potter (19 points, eight rebounds) made a free throw for the seven-point lead, also drawing the fourth foul on the Bears' Walker Mehl (11 points, seven on free throws).

Mehl played under control the rest of the way, didn't pick up a fifth foul, and hit five fourth-quarter free throws.

Late in the quarter, Marcus Brown (17 points) drove for a layup and hit a 3-pointer, and Cole McGraw (5-of-5 shooting, 12 points) had a 3-pointer in a run that sent the Bears into the final quarter up 45-43.

After Bandys' Hunter Durfree (13 points, nine rebounds) hit two free throws with 6:48 to play, Bunker Hill junior Delano Loritts (19 points) began to make many of the plays that decided it.

After Donovan Rinehardt's 3-point play, Loritts posted another on a 12-foot jumper in the lane and via a free throw that put the Bears up 53-45.

Loritts then scored on a lob pass and had another bucket in the lane with 3:36 to go, leaving Bunker Hill ahead 63-52 with about three minutes to play.

Bandys was within 63-56 when guard Kyle Houser (3-of-15 shooting, 16 points) hit a 3-pointer with 2:39 to go but the Bears had control.

Wilkinson said Brown's defense on Houser, who was playing with a tender ankle and knee after an injury in the Trojans' previous game, was important.

"That kinda got us through the first three quarters," Wilkinson said. "You gotta hold him (Houser) or Potter, one of those guys, in check."

Houser did not hit back-to-back jumpers until the fourth quarter. He hit 2-of-10 from 3-point range and scored half of his 16 points on free throws.

"We had a hiccup tonight," said Bandys head coach Bradley Gabriel, whose team won by boards by eight but shot 38.4 percent. "This was a huge game for us because I wanted that separation (in the standings) between second, third and fourth.

"A lot of our shots did not fall and Bunker Hill had a lot to do with that. We just didn't play defense.

"Everything else worked, but as far as defense we didn't show up from mid-third quarter and in the fourth.

"When you give up layups and wide open shots, you're gonna pay for it."

BANDYS 78, BUNKER HILL 43

Sophomore guard Jesse Story scored 15 of her game-high 17 points in the second half as the Trojans won to remain in a tie for second place in the CVAC.

Bandys (15-2, 5-2) reached 15 wins for the 28th time in the last 40 seasons after grabbing an 18-0 lead before the Bears (2-14, 1-6) scored.

Story hit three of the Trojans' five 3-pointers and added six assists. Tara Potter had 13 points, eight in the first quarter, and grabbed 10 rebounds, Taylor Sigmon scored 10 points and Liz Goodwin had nine points and five steals as Bandys improved to 7-1 at home this season.

April Harper led the Bears, who lost their seventh straight, with 15 points.

The victory was No. 275 for Beth Queen as a head coach and player at Bandys (164-63 as a coach, 111-7 as a player).