The Bear River Bruins boys basketball team (14-13, 9-4) hosted the Wheatland Pirates (2-23, 0-12) on Wednesday night. Bear River pulled out a 52-38 win over the Pirates.
Bear River has a young team and they are starting to come around.
“This is year two for me,” head coach Dan Mooney said. “It takes 3-5 years to turn a program around with a winning culture. I graduated nine seniors with only two sophomores who started on varsity last year, Tyler Huesveldt and Zach Smith. So we are playing and learning at the same time. We’ve improved to a 3rd place spot at 9-4,14-13 overall in league play with all D-III and IV schools.”
Junior Zach Smith got Bear River off to a good start, scoring eight first-quarter points to give the Bruins a 16-10 lead after one quarter. However, Wheatland kept the game close by knocking down three-point shots.
A Brady Moorlag two-point shot at the buzzer gave Bear River a 28-21 lead going into the half. Moorlag had eight second-quarter points.
In the second half, Bear River did a great job getting to the basket, and Moorlag did a great job penetrating to the basket and finishing at the rim. The Bruins also played good defense, forcing turnovers and making Wheatland take tough shots.
Moorlag led the Bruins in scoring with 16 points, with Smith adding 14 points of his own. Cole Walton added 13 points, while Luke Jeffers added nine points in the post.
The Bruins head to Marysville (24-3, 13-0) tonight to take on the Indians to close out the regular season. It will be challenging for Bear River, but coach Mooney believes they can play with anybody.
“Marysville is the league champ, and we played them great in the first half of our first meeting,” Mooney said. “We need to protect the ball and limit the turnovers, and we will be fine. We can play with any team when we follow the strategic game plan.”
Tip off is at 8 p.m. at Marysville High School, 12 18th Street, Marysville Ca 95901.
To contact Sports Reporter LaMarr Fields email lfields@theunion.com.
