Burres’ hot hand leads LHS over Medora

For the second week in a row, Lanesville’s boys basketball team endured an extra frame of basketball, as well as a weekend split.
The Eagles ventured to Pekin Friday for a date against the Musketeers, and despite having chances to win in both regulation and overtime, the visitors departed with a 66-64 loss.
One night later, host Lanesville powered past Medora, 65-43, thanks to a stellar shooting night overall and a career-high 21 points from Michael Burres.
The Eagles shot better than 50 percent in the loss against Eastern, and sizzled again against the Hornets, torching the nets for 26 of 49 (53 percent) from the floor.
The only hiccup against Medora came in the second period, where the visitors knocked down eight of 12 shot attempts and outscored Lanesville, 23-8.
‘We didn’t get a lot of movement in the second quarter. I think we let up a little bit, for whatever reason,’ Lanesville coach Mikel Miller said. ‘It’s kind of a common thing in basketball where you get an early lead and then you relax too much. We came in at halftime and told the guys that they have to play a lot harder. We have to play better defensively, be more aggressive.
‘We forced them into 19 turnovers. That helped us because we were able to take those turnovers and turn them into baskets.’
Early baskets by Burres, Chris VanHoose, Taylor Hess and Dave Bachmann helped the Eagles (3-4) push out to a 14-3 lead and eventually a 19-6 advantage after one period of action.
Medora’s Steven Watson, a 6-2 senior who paced the Hornets with 21 points, powered his club with back-to-back buckets, and Burres surrounded a Johnny McKinney three with two deuces to set the score at 23-13.
Over the next 3:10, the Hornets would rally, tie the game at 23 and 25, then take the lead after four consecutive free throws by junior guard Josh Ault, 27-25.
VanHoose and Jordan Brittain swapped baskets to set the halftime score at 29-27 in favor of the visitors.
The second half was a different story for the Hornets.
After knocking down eight shots from the field in the second period, Medora could only manage to sink three the entire second half.
Hess and Patrick Huffman carried the hosts in the third frame, accounting for 13 of the team’s 20 points.
Lanesville outscored Medora 8-4 in the first four minutes and then ran off a 12-2 spurt in the final four minutes of the third to lead, 47-35.
Burres put the game away in the fourth quarter, posting a personal 8-1 run on slices to the hoop to give the Eagles a 55-36 lead.
‘He was much more aggressive,’ Miller said of Burres. ‘I’d like him to play more like that. His shot was falling, but he was attacking the basket, getting fouled and getting to the free throw line. He wasn’t just settling for the jump shot, and sometimes that’s a good thing.’
Medora never recovered from the flurry as Lanesville coasted to the end.
After Burres’ 21 points, Hess came through with 14, VanHoose had 13 and Huffman wound up with seven points. Bachmann, who put in four points, had nine rebounds, five assists and seven blocked shots.
‘We wanted to get the ball inside to Taylor,’ Miller said. ‘He’s had four games in a row now where he’s scored in double figures. When he gets the ball, he’s real active. He does a real nice job on the defensive rebounding as well. When we got it in there, we hurt them. Taylor’s got some moves inside and has developed really well. Bachmann has developed really well, and Barnickle’s in there, too.’
The Hornets (3-3) were held to 16-38 (42 percent) shooting.
Lanesville, which had 17 assists on their 28 field goals, tied Medora on the boards, 27-27, had 11 turnovers while forcing 19 on the visitors.
In the loss to Eastern, the Eagles led by two at the end of a back-and-forth first half.
‘We had the game won in regulation and had it won in overtime and lost it both times. It came down to poor execution when we needed good execution. It came down to free throws when we needed it to, we needed a pass, we needed a catch. Those things went against us,’ Miller said. ‘We look at it as, with the exception of the Providence game, we’ve been in every game. We’re 3-4 and could very easily be 6-1. The effort was there. We just needed to do a better executing.’
Burres again the led way for Lanesville with 18 points. Hess scored 16, VanHoose had 13 (along with seven assists), Huffman put in nine, and Bachmann added eight.
Eastern got 21 points from senior center Joe Newcomb and 20 more from senior power forward Anthony Adkins.
The Eagles travel Saturday to Perry Central to battle the undefeated and 16th-ranked (Class 2A) Commodores. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m.