Murphy – The Bulldogs had a close loss to Andrews to start the week, but they were road warriors the rest of the time with wins at Highlands and Cherokee.
Murphy (14-8) got on the scoring train when they showed up in Highlands (6-16) on Feb. 7. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 22-10 first-quarter lead and never looked back en route to a 80-60 win over the Highlanders. Dominick Rummler and Xander Wachacha led the Murphy scoring frenzy, as both hit for eight points in the first period.
Murphy extended their lead in the second period behind the shooting of several Bulldogs. Andrew Barolet, Tyler Payne and Rummler had four points apiece in the second, when Murphy outscored Highlands to lead 39-18 at the half.
Highlands came out with a brief run at the start of the second half. They hit for four points at the beginning of the third, and Murphy couldn’t get anything to fall.
After a Murphy timeout, Zack Skogen hit a 3-pointer to end the Murphy drought. The Bulldogs then went into a full-court press defense and ended up outscoring the Highlanders 22-20 to take a 61-38 lead into the fourth period.
Murphy rested their starters for most of the fourth period, letting others get valuable playing time. The reserves took advantage, as Cale Harger hit for five points, and Tyler Payne and Trey Morin hit for four apiece, to net the final 80-60 win.
Rummler was one of two Murphy players in double figures as he had 19 points, while Zach Skogen hit for 12 points for the night.
Things were looking up for the Bulldogs at Cherokee (12-8) on Friday. Murphy jumped out to a 22-18 lead at the end of the first period. Skogen put on a scoring clinic in the first period hit a 3-pointer, two field goals and added three free throws to account for 10 of Murphy’s first-quarter points.
Cherokee stormed back in the second period behind Luke Smith, who scored all of his 21 points in the first half. Cherokee outscored the Dogs in the second period 21-14 to take a 39-36 lead into the half.
The only problem for Cherokee was that their leading scorer had three fouls going into halftime.
He fouled out for the Braves midway through the third period. Murphy took advantage to regain the lead, outscoring the Braves 24-19 in the third to take a 58-50 lead into the fourth quarter. Murphy extended their lead by as much as nine points with a little over six minutes to go, before disaster struck.
Rummler fouled out with 5:38 left in the game as Murphy clung to a six-point lead. Cherokee’s 3-point specialist, Jack Teeseteskie, who was playing with four fouls, hits two quick 3’s to cut the Bulldog lead to two points. Rummler’s replacement, Hunter Carson, then fouled out with 2:25 left.
Cherokee cut the lead to three with less than a minute to go. One guy made sure disaster did not strike again for Murphy in the final minutes.
With 1:58 left in the game, Wachacha hit a 3-pointer to put the Dogs back up by five points. Cherokee answered on the other end to take it back to just a three-point lead.
Wachacha followed that with a layup to put Murphy back up by five. Tyler Payne added a 3-pointer on the next trip down to extend Murphy’s lead to eight, and the Dogs went on to win 84-69.
Wachacha led all scorers with 23 points and had 12 steals on the night. Skogen registered a double double, as he hit for 22 points and had 12 defensive rebounds, four of those coming at critical times in the fourth quarter to help the Dogs secure the win.
“I just want to bring this thing home,” Wachacha said when asked about Rummler and Carson fouling out down the stretch.
That he did.