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Huskies beat Summit from way downtown

Chris Freud
BMBB Trent Beckley SM 1-17
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EAGLE-VAIL- Just call the Battle Mountain boys basketball team a bunch of 3-point shooting fools.The Huskies moved away from their traditional pound-it-in-to-Connor-Drumm-and-Trent-Beckley game, opting for an avalanche of 3s to beat Summit, 61-43, Tuesday night. The Huskies put up eight treys in the first half, including five in the first quarter alone.”The first half, we just played great,” Huskies coach Philip Tronsrue said. “We came out and knocked some 3-balls down and that’s what we’ve got to do. If they do that, teams will not be able to double-down on Trent and Connor. … Teams are going to be scrambling if we play like that.””That clearly took us out of our game plan,” Summit coach Mike Rathgeber said. “We watched the Steamboat(-Battle Mountain) game (Saturday). We saw that those two had seven-eighths (sic) of their points and we decided that someone else was going to have to beat us, and to their credit, they did.”Every starter had a 3, except for Trent Beckley, which begs the question. What’s it going to take for the big guy to get one from behind the arc.?”I don’t know if Coach will let him shoot a a 3-pointer,” Huskies point guard Josh Ruark said with a laugh. “I don’t know.”

That’s an affirmative, Josh.”He will probably never have a 3,” Tronsrue said.That having been said, Beckley had two three-point plays via the layup and the foul on his way to a team-high 16 points and 13 rebounds.Hitting the trifectaBeckley had the first five points for the Huskies, and then the 3 parade began. In the final five minutes, T.J. Montoya, Derek Rush, Ruark and Kyle Leffler all hit from downtown. Ruark capped the period with another trey at the buzzer for a 20-8 first-quarter lead.

Drumm had two 3s in the second and Montoya tacked on another one and the Huskies led 41-18 at intermission.”We’ve been working on that,” Ruark said. “We’ve been playing well like that. We’ve been distributing the ball well and hitting shots. It keeps teams on their toes, so they can’t double-down on Trent and Connor all the time.”Also for Ruark. Tuesday night’s win was a sweet one given that he was in goal in October when the Tigers beat the Huskies, 3-2, in soccer.”I had a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I got it off. It’s a good feeling.”Ruark had 10 points while Drumm had 15. Summit’s Clint Hamilton led all scorers with 17.



Big JoeWith the game easily in hand, Tronsrue flushed his bench. The biggest cheer of the night came when Huskies senior Joe Ortega checked into the game. It got louder when Ortega put in a layup with 2:57 to go.”It’s fun to get it,” Ortega said. “I didn’t play for three years. Coming out in my senior year, it’s a pretty fun game. I wish I played my other three years. Coming out and hearing everyone cheering, it’s good feeling.””Being a sub is really hard,” Tronsrue said. “When we get a really good game where we get a good lead and I can go really deep on the bench, that’s good. I really like that because guys are working. Joe works hard every day in practice and it’s tough to give him minutes. He got the opportunity and he got a bucket.”Battle Mountain (11-2 overall and 4-1 in the 4A Slope) hosts Palisade Friday at 7:30 p.m. Summit (5-7) has its Jeffco opener at Farmer’s Korner Friday night at 7.Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 14630 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.Vail, Colorado


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