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Barneveld boys basketball coach Shawn Sullivan told the team before the non-conference opener with Highland Tuesday that they had to start somewhere.
After the Golden Eagles walked off the court with an 80-49 win over the Cardinals, Sullivan and crew figured that was a good place to start.
Sophomore Dustin Hodgson drilled six three pointers and destroyed the Cardinal zone with 21 points. Senior 6-7 center Sam Nechkash added 18 points and drew much of the defensive attention which helped Hodgson get his open shots.
Another sophomore, point guard Jeremy Whitish, added 17 points and got into the three point contest with two.
Colton Moyer was the fourth Barneveld player in double figures with 12. His total included a trio of three pointers.
Bailey Bodenstein and Nic Pierick both had 15 points to lead the Cardinals.
After the Eagles picked up a 15-12 lead in the first quarter the Cardinals switched up defenses in favor of a zone. That allowed Hodgson some open looks and he nailed four three pointers in the second frame. Colton Moyer also added a three pointer and the Eagles were six for seven from the line in the second period.
"Offensively this was the best I've seen for a long time hitting 56% from three point range and 75% from the line," Sullivan said. "Two of our sophomores combined for 38 points and 16 assists."
Whitish completed a double double with his 17 points and 12 assists.
He also ran the point guard spot to perfection as he did not commit a turnover.
"We got pretty comfortable with the zone the second half," Sullivan said. "Sam drew them in down low and Dustin came through from the outside."
"We also got some strong bench play especially from freshman Hunter Whitish who played a lot of minutes," Sullivan said. "We found out we have some work to do defensively but everything there is correctable."
The Eagles are at Fennimore Saturday for a 6 p.m. game following the JV contest set to go at 4:30 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
H 12 9 8 20 49
B 15 21 17 27 80
BOX SCORE
HIGHLAND 49: (fg-ft-tp) Pierick 4-6-15, Blake Bodenstein 3-1-7, Linscheid 1-1-3, Bailey Bodenstein 6-2-15, Yager 0-2-2. Kleist 3-1-7 Totals 17-13/30-49 Fouls-22 Fouled out-Kleist
BARNEVELD 80: Lee 1-3-6, Hodgson 7-1-21, Nechkash 8-2-18, A. Moyer 1-0-2, J. Whitish 4-7-17, H. Whitish 0-4-4, C. Moyer 4-1-12 Totals 25-18/24-80 Fouls-26 Fouled out-Lee
3 point goals:
H-Pierick 1, Bailey Bodenstein 1
B-Hodgson 6, Lee 1, J. Whitish 2, C. Moyer 3
JV-Barneveld 46, Highland 37