Burnet boys basketball ends tourney on winning streak

CAPTION: Burnet senior guard Jaxon Sparks is another Bulldog who looks to get his teammates going thanks to his defense and passing abilities. Photos by Kaydence Burditt/In Color Photography

The Burnet High School boys basketball team finished the Deer Capital Classic on a three-game winning streak Dec. 5-6 to end a three-game losing skid.

The Bulldogs (5-4) defeated Llano, which hosted the tournament, 77-46, Blanco 64-37 and Bartlett 49-43. They lost to Jim Ned 56-54 to begin the tournament Dec. 4 after losing to Lago Vista 51-46 Dec. 2 at The Doghouse.

Assistant coach Carter Carruthers noted the significance of getting the winning streak going.

“It’s huge,” he said. “Our kids have been busting their tails, they work hard. When they’re doing all that and can’t seem to find the success to win a game (it’s difficult).”

Carruthers noted the contest against the Yellow Jackets couldn’t have started better. The Bulldogs scored 27 of their 77 points in the first period. In short, he enjoyed watching this game as much as the fans.

“It felt like we were shooting into the ocean,” the coach said. “We weren’t missing shots. Those kids played confidently, and it was so good just for their confidence, and then also just their camaraderie. They were having fun and seeing a lot of guys who also don’t get to play as much in tight moments getting to play a lot in that game. That’s something we want to be really big on is having a really tight-knit team, and so that was good to see those kids have success. And then seeing really everybody on our roster have some success in that game.”

Burnet applied all the positives from the Llano win into the contest against Blanco, head coach Juston Weldon’s former team.

“From his perspective, he said it was the best we’d looked and played together all year,” Carruthers said. “And it showed on film.”

The Bulldogs shot a whopping 56 percent from the floor, making it one of the best shooting percentages of the season.

“We were getting high percentage looks, and we were making them,” Carruthers said. “A lot of that has to do with having (players) develop that confidence the day before.”

Then Burnet finished with a victory over Bartlett. The Bulldogs led from start to finish, but Bartlett didn’t go quietly.

“We had to finally find a way to just go ahead and win that game,” the coach said. “That was kind of the inverse of what we’d been doing. We’d been in those tight games before, and we just could not find ourselves on the positive side of that. We couldn’t win those. We had a lead and then we’d lose it, and couldn’t get it back. But then in that game, we had the lead, we maintained the lead, and we found a way to win it at the end.” 

Carruthers pointed out the Bulldogs, which lost three games by a total of 13 points, closed out an opponent in the final minutes to exit Llano with hard-fought, close victory.

“We haven’t been able to get that monkey off our backs and know how to play (in a close game),” he said. “And finally just come down on the winning side of one of those close games – that was good for our kids. And I think probably the reason we could do that was because we worked so hard a couple of games before.”

The Bulldogs will travel to play at the Waco Robinson Tournament Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 11-13. Burnet plays Marlin at 2:10 p.m. Thursday and West at 8:30 a.m. Friday, both in pool play. Their record will determine who, where and what time they play next. In all, the Bulldogs will play five games.

Carruthers said the Bulldogs view the final month of pre-district play as opportunities to learn, grow and get better. They welcome Marble Falls in early January for the start of District 24-4A play.

“We have all this time to learn how to handle these adverse moments,” he said. “And we have a lot of kids who haven’t played a lot of varsity basketball, so they’re learning how to play at this level and how to win at this level. They know how to play this sport, but learning how to win in those situations when it matters – that’s a learning thing. The only way you can do it is put yourself in those situations.”

CAPTION: Burnet senior guard J.J. Whigham is one of several Bulldogs capable of playing great defense, shooting from different spots on the floor and keeping his teammates involved. Photos by Kaydence Burditt/In Color Photography