by 
Southeast Valley Ledger
Four Poston Butte basketball players scored in double figures in a 73 – 39 victory over Santa Cruz Valley last Tuesday. The win improved the Broncos to 2 – 0 in pool play as the host team of the Poston Butte Thanksgiving Classic.
Poston Butte shooting guard Preston Anderson, a senior, led all scorers with 16 points, shooting 60 percent from the field, which included 4-of-7 from behind the three-point arc.
Kevin Johnson (15), Qujuan Steward (14), and Josh Zaker (10) were the other Broncos who finished with double-digit scoring totals.
The Broncos were outstanding from three-point land in the win, hitting 54 percent as team on 14-of-26 shooting. Six different players had at least one three-pointer made with each converting 33 percent or better of their attempts.
“I like threes off ball movement and off reversal just because it’s a better shot,” Poston Butte head coach Noel Nafziger said after the game. “If the ball moves, we catch it off of a reverse, (or) we drive and kick it out, then we shoot a very high percentage and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Anderson drilled his first two three-point attempts of the game and hit all four of his made threes in the first half. He scored 14 of his 16 points before halftime, leading the Broncos to a 36 – 26 lead at the break.
“We’re in the gym every day, putting up shots,” said Anderson, accounting for the Broncos’ hot shooting. “We’re all practicing shooting and that’s why we made such a high percentage tonight.”
The Broncos put on an offensive clinic for most of the night, including after halftime when they opened with a 14 – 2 run to open a 22-point lead, 50 – 28. They outscored the Dust Devils 37 – 13 in the second half.
“We just knocked down shots,” Zaker said. “Tonight we moved the ball well and hit the open shots.”
In addition to the extra shooting work in the gym, the Broncos are benefitting from having 6-foot-7 junior center Tyson Berringer in the middle. His presence opens things up on the perimeter, which makes it easier to find open looks at the hoop for Broncos’ guards.
But make no mistake; the first-year varsity player is more than just a space-eater. He is a scoring threat who can dominate the boards. He scored nine points and had a team-high nine rebounds, including seven on the offensive end in Tuesday’s win.
“I’m a huge fan,” Nafziger said of Berringer. “The thing about him is this is only his third year of basketball and his second varsity game. I think he’s going to be really, really good when he gets it. If he plays well, that’s definitely going to help us.”
Perhaps lost in the 34-point victory was the Broncos’ defensive performance. They held the Dust Devils to less than 39 percent shooting and they did it, in part, using a defense they don’t practice and rarely use: a zone.
“We don’t practice it because I’m not a zone guy,” said Nafziger, adding that it’s difficult to play a zone defense without a shot clock. “But I’ll use it in certain situations. It only works if our guys move when the ball moves and they did that tonight. I was very happy with how we looked in it.”
Sometimes practice is not always needed to make perfect.
Upcoming schedule: Dec. 7 at Walden Grove, Dec. 8 vs. Safford. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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