TURNING IT BACK AROUND

Coming off first District 20-1A loss to Covington, Jones and Nunez lead Meridian Yellowjackets over Kopperl in bounce back win, travel to Iredell Friday

After opening District 20-1A competition right before embarking on a seven-day layoff for the Christmas holiday, the Meridian Yellowjacket boys basketball team knew it would have to come back from the break ready to hit on all cylinders.

But after a strong showing at the Bynum Tournament Dec. 27-29, the Jackets misfired as district resumed with a disappointing 66-41 loss to the league-leading Covington Owls on the road Jan. 2. Desperately needing to put that loss in the rearview mirror, Meridian responded with a dominating 69-35 home victory over the Kopperl Eagles last Friday as the first round of district hit the midway point.

“We needed to bounce back after Tuesday’s loss to Covington,” Meridian boys basketball head coach Grant Schur said. “To start the game, we played better offensively. But defensively, we played a lot like we did Tuesday. We were a little sluggish rotating, and didn’t have enough urgency in what we were doing.”

Led by freshman Josh Nunez with 25 points and junior Matty Jones with 20, the Jackets (2-1 in district, 11-6 overall) jumped out to an early 20-11 first quarter lead, built a 15-point advantage by halftime before burying the Eagles (0-2, 6-8) in the second half.

“I was really proud of the way we responded after halftime,” Schur said. “We talked about fixing some of the things we were doing wrong defensively, and put an emphasis on eliminating missed shots at the goal. Hopefully, we can continue to get back on track and play the way we want to play and are capable of playing.

“Coach Davis is doing a really good job at Kopperl, they have improved a lot this year, he’s got them headed in the right direction.”

After enjoying an open date on Tuesday, Meridian will hit the road to take on the Iredell Dragons (1-3, 6-11) at 7:15 p.m. Friday before wrapping up the first round of district play next week with a road game at Blum (0-3, 0-16) Jan. 16 and a home game against Morgan (2-0, 13-1) Jan. 19.

With the Jackets idle on Tuesday, Covington (4-0, 14-9) held onto the first round lead with a 71-50 home victory over Blum, Morgan (3-0, 14-1) extended its winning streak to eight straight by knocking off Walnut Springs (2-2, 7-5), 46-33, while Iredell notched its first district win with a 66-57 road victory at Kopperl.

As the defending district champions for the first time in 20 years, the Jackets find themselves in third place behind Covington and Morgan early in the district race. In the loss to Covington, Jones led Meridian with 11 points, followed by Nunez with nine and freshman Guillermo Ortiz with eight.

“Covington was a game you really wish you could have just hit the reset button and started over,” Schuer said. “It definitely wasn’t one of our better games. Really, it was probably the worst we have looked since our very first game against Frost. We looked really sluggish. But to Covington’s credit, that is the best I have seen them play this year. They had a really good game plan, and their kids executed it really well.

“We’ve talked a lot this year that like it or not, we are going to get everyone’s best game, and we can’t have off nights like we did. It is something that we have to learn from and something that with our youth and inexperience could be good for us depending on how we respond to it.”

Following a seven-day break for Christmas, the Jackets will returned to action by playing in the Bynum Tournament Dec. 27-29, and built some momentum before resuming district with three straight wins.

When Hill Country failed to show up for the tournament’s opening game, Meridian posted a 54-27 victory over the Bynum junior varsity squad, before making it two in a row by overwhelming Gholson, 64-17 as freshmen Hayden Cummings and Garrett Pope as well as Nunez led the Jackets with 10 points apiece, followed by sophomore Jesse Scott with nine.

“It was a good way to start coming off the five-day break,” Schur said. “Against the Bynum JV, we were up 41-13 after three, so it was also good to give some of our JV guys and guys that don’t normally play as much a chance to play more.

“Again against Gholson, it was good for all of our guys and some JV guys to get into the game and get playing time. We played a little more like we like to play in that game, tempo wise and defensively.”

In the final game of the tournament, Jones led the Jackets with 11 points and Nunez tossed in 10 as Meridian soared past the West Junior Varsity, 43-19. Freshman Walyn Sheppard also scored eight points, while freshman Guillermo Ortiz added seven.

“We played really well defensively,” Schur said. “I thought our pace was really good in this game as well. I wasn’t real pleased with the way we finished at the goal. We missed a lot of shots in the paint and at the goal that we can’t afford to miss.

“At the end of the day, all you want from a tournament right after the break is to get some games in, get up and down the floor, and come out healthy, which we did for the most part.”