Peetz advances after romp over Pawnee

They may have emerged from their kennel quietly but it wasn't long before the growl of the Bulldogs could be heard loud and clear.

After falling behind 6-2 early, the No. 2 Peetz Bulldogs cruised to a 60-40 first-round win over the No. 7 Pawnee Mustangs in the Class 1A District 4 Tournament at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo. Wednesday night.

The Bulldogs now stand at 11-9.

Peetz next prepares to meet a tough challenge against the No. 3 Caliche Buffaloes (18-2) on Thursday in a second-round game at 8:30 p.m. at NJC. The Buffaloes pounded Prairie in their opening game, 77-42.

No. 5 Fleming (7-13) will take on No. 1 Briggsdale (12-6) in the other semifinal. Fleming knocked off Weldon Valley 60-36 in its quarterfinal game while Briggsdale received an opening-round bye.

Considering how rapid the pace became, the Bulldogs may have appeared a little sluggish at the start. In the opening 3:19 of the game all Peetz could manage was a layup from Josh Fiscus. At that point the Bulldogs trailed 6-2.

With 4:18 left in the opening quarter Peetz still found themselves down 7-4 after only one additional scoring contribution from Casey Barrett. That's about the time, however, the growl of the 'Dogs became clear and unmistakable.

"The start was basically some first-round district jitters but we looked very good after that," said Peetz Head Coach Bill Fiscus.

The Bulldogs finished the opening frame on an 18-0 run that started innocently enough with a Corbin Heller flying layup. But then Tre Lewis made a steal which he converted into a layup. Shortly thereafter Lewis was at it again when he scored after a Bradey Holtz pass in the paint.

The beat went on, with Fiscus making a three-point play, Lewis converting on an assists from Fiscus on two straight plays, Holtz draining a trey and Cody Wilson finishing the quarter with a court-length drive.

"We have to play our pace and that's up tempo," said Lewis. "We were playing our pace in the first half and they couldn't keep up."

The pace created in the final minutes of the first quarter continued without a break right through the second.

When the Bulldogs opened the second frame with 9 straight, the run had reached 27 uninterupted points. Though the dust never really settled, the stretch had left the Bulldogs with a 31-7 advantage.

Only a pair of foul shots by Bryce Schmug put broke up the onslaught.

The fury began anew after the Schmug freebies when the freshmen duo of Lewis and Wilson teamed up. Lewis took a sharp Wilson pass in the paint to conclude another pair of fast-break points. Casey Barrett followed with a personal 5-0 run including a net bender from down town.

Lewis then finished another 10-0 barrage for a 40-9 lead.

In all the Bulldogs had scored 36 of the last 38 points. In that time Pawnee had not a single field goal to its credit.

The Mustangs did manage to stretch the net twice in the final two minutes of the half, however, but still trailed 44-13 at the horn.

"We came out with a lot of intenisty tonight and we kept it going throughout the first half," said Heller. "I think we got a little more complacent in the second half."

Though the scoring pace slowed down some for the Bulldogs in the second 16 minutes they were never in any danger. Pawnee showed more life in the third quarter, which opened with a three-point play from the Mustangs' Schnug. Later Pawnee freshman Owen Wahlert drained two consecutive treys.

But when Barrett scored the final points of the period the Bulldogs still led by 22 at 53-31.

"We came out with confidence and energy in the first half," said Wilson. "We slowed down a little in the second half but we kept up our big lead."

Holtz made a quick pass to Lewis on an inbounds play under the hoop to open the scoring in the final eight minutes. Leading scorer Fiscus saw his time limited in the frame but did get back in action late.

The Bulldogs made five trips to the foul line with three being one-and-ones. Ben Karnik and Fiscus each made both ends of their attempts in the final three minutes.

Fiscus' freebies were the last points of the game.

After the final horn the Bulldogs attention turned towards the Caliche vs. Prarie game which was getting set to play out on the same NJC floor. As Caliche seemed the likely winner, their thoughts began to drift towards the Buffaloes on Thursday night.

"We want to go through Caliche and we have to approach them with confidence," said Josh Fiscus. "We were ahead by three points at the half the last time we played them and then we had some injuries that slowed us down. We can play with them. We just have to stay healthy."

Boys Basketball

Peetz 60

Pawnee 40

Linescore

Pawnee 7 6 18 9 - 40

Peetz 22 22 9 7 - 60

Bulldogs Scoring

Tre Lewis 16

Josh Fiscus 12

Bradey Holtz 10

Casey Barrett 8

Cody Wilson 6

Corbin Heller 5

Ben Karnik 3