Pine Bluffs senior Collin Jessen (22) looks for a shot under pressure from Burns junior Ethan Norris (13) and senior Angel Chavez (22) during a boys basketball game at Burns High School on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
Burns senior Cody Piasecki (1) dribbles beside Pine Bluffs senior Stuart Lerwick (12) during a boys basketball game at Burns High School on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
Pine Bluffs senior Collin Jessen (22) looks for a shot under pressure from Burns junior Ethan Norris (13) and senior Angel Chavez (22) during a boys basketball game at Burns High School on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
Alyte Katilius/Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Burns senior Cody Piasecki (1) dribbles beside Pine Bluffs senior Stuart Lerwick (12) during a boys basketball game at Burns High School on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
Alyte Katilius/Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Burns senior Cody Piasecki (1) goes up for a layup during a boys basketball game at Burns High School on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
BURNS – Pine Bluffs had already built a sizeable lead after the first quarter Saturday night in Burns.
Then the Hornets clamped down defensively and put the game out of reach during a 65-27 victory.
Pine Bluffs limited the Broncs to three points in the second quarter, and four in the fourth.
“We tried to work on what we needed to work on, and control what we could control,” Hornets’ coach Tyler Kimzey said. “We did a good job of staying within ourselves.”
Help defense has been a point of emphasis for Pine Bluffs since it lost at Tongue River last month.
“When we help over, the backside has to drop back and we have to make sure all of our rotations are correct,” Fornstrom added. “(Tongue River) is really good about attacking us. We rotated late and we weren’t there, so we started working on it. We rotated, and it worked out better this week.”
Fornstrom finished with a game-high 21 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. Senior Dalton Schaefer added 18 points and three steals. Classmate Stu Lerwick chipped in with 11 points five rebounds and four steals.
“Our approach is buckling down on defense and letting our offense will roll off that,” Pine Bluffs senior guard Ryan Fornstrom said. “We played good defense, and our offense got rolling by converting off their mistakes.”
Burns coach Kurtis Suloff chalked some of his team’s struggles to shooting woes.
“We had a lot of opportunities around the basket we just missed,” he said. “Against a team like Pine Bluffs, your margin for error isn’t very high. We missed about three right around the basket early that could have made it a couple-point game by the end of the first.
“You can’t dig a hole against a team like Pine. They’re just too good.”
Senior Cody Piasecki paced Burns with nine points despite being in foul trouble most of the night. Cody Hape pulled down eight rebounds.
Despite the loss, Suloff said he’s happy with his team’s effort.
“We’re a work in progress, but we’re going to get there,” he said.
PINE BLUFFS 65, BURNS 27
Pine Bluffs…… 15 13 20 17 – 65
Burns…… 7 3 13 4 – 27
Pine Bluffs: Slade 0, J. Lerwick 6, R. Fornstrom 21, S. Lerwick 11, Sloan 0, Schmidl 0, Freeburg 4, Jessen 3, Paice 2, Schaefer 18, Carter 0.
Burns: Piasecki 9, David 4, Hape 0, C. Lakin 3, J. Allen 6, H. Allen 0, Medley 0, Norris 0, Munson 0, Chavez 5, Dominguez 0.
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.
