Bombers changed intensity, sense of urgency to clip Hornets in final pre-Christmas tuneup

ABINGDON, Ill. — Two things had to change this time around, and they did.

In the 2022 Great Western Shootout at Abingdon-Avon High School, the Scales Mound boys basketball team handled Macomb 50-31.

“I thought a couple years ago, we were pretty good,” said Bombers coach Jeremy Anderson, whose team went 25-6 that season. “We came up here and Scales Mound handled us.”

Anderson said intensity and urgency made the difference that day.

“We didn’t have it that day, they had it from the jump ball, and they blitzed us,” Anderson said. “I thought, ‘Well, let’s learn from that.’”

On Saturday, Macomb once again clashed with the Hornets at the Great Western Shootout, and the Bombers brought that intensity and urgency. They turned the tables by knocking down 12 3-pointers, playing fundamentally sound defense and pulling away from the Hornets in a 61-37 victory.

“We can’t let them be the most intense,” Anderson said. “We can’t let them be the most urgent. I thought today we did a good job of that.”

Bombers senior guard Braden Holthaus, who matched Drew Watson with 12 points, could sense a different level of intensity amongst his teammates.

“Last time we played them, we came out lazy,” Holthaus said. “This time we had to match their intensity, and I think we did more than that today.”

The Bombers led 30-20 at halftime, and their lead only grew from there. The Bombers’ final two possessions of the third quarter put the proverbial dagger in the Hornets.

With 35 seconds left in the period, after two Bombers offensive rebounds, Holthaus knocked down a 3-pointer to extend Macomb’s lead to 45-27. The next time down the floor, senior guard Malachi Conley drained a triple at the buzzer.

“That was definitely icing on the cake,” Watson said. “He used to do that all the time on JV freshman and sophomore year. He would make shots like that and everyone would look around like, ‘What the heck just happened?’ He’s a great player.”

Conley was grinning from ear to ear all the way to the Bombers bench for the break in between quarters.

“He’s such a fun kid to coach because his emotions are on his sleeve,” Anderson said. “It’s great to see him get really excited and happy. I’m happy for him, too. Hopefully that will give him some motivation to keep doing some other things well.”

That 3-pointer gave Conley 10 points, joining Holthaus at the time and later Watson, who made two long balls in the fourth quarter, in double figures.

“Once all of us click, I think we can destroy any team out there,” Conley said.

Three other Bombers — Langdon Lambert, Nolan Hoge and Nick Elbe — scored at least five points.

“Today we were probably the most balanced we’ve been all year, honestly,” Watson said. “Everybody was shooting it well. Everybody was playing hard. Everyone was scoring, taking shots within their ability, and it was really nice.”

While the Bombers were splashing threes left and right on offense, keeping it simple was the name of the game on defense. The Bombers held Scales Mound to their lowest point total of the season.

“Stay between your man and the basket, jump to the ball, put yourself in good positions, try to never take yourself out of position, try to force them to take a tough shot between you and the basket. I know it’s all elementary type things, but that’s how we teach it,” Anderson said. “The times that we follow those principles and everybody’s doing their job, we usually make the other team have to take a tough shot.”

The Bombers (7-2) will return to practice on Monday ahead of their first-round game against Canton on Thursday in the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament.

“I think it’s a really good draw all around,” Anderson said. “The first round of games, there are going to be some really, really good games, including ours against Canton. The committee did a good job of putting it together because it’s not an easy process. It’s going to provide three pretty good days of basketball.”

A performance like Saturday’s will serve the Bombers well in their pursuit of a tournament title.

“We just have to stay consistent,” Conley said.