DARLINGTON — On Tuesday, Jan. 31, a night meant to honor the Darlington (18-1, 9-0) varsity boys basketball squad’s seniors, Boscobel (2-15, 1-8) came to town with the hopes they might upset the Redbirds. The exact opposite happened, as the Redbirds cruised to victory over the Bulldogs by way of an 84-51 final score.
“It was senior night tonight, so it was a chance to get our seniors some recognition by giving them a start tonight,” said Darlington head coach Tom Uppena.
Levi Carter, Carver Fitzsimons, Cannon Lancaster, Brady Smith and Gerson Soto-Aguirre was the squad taking the court to begin the game, and the group came out ready to play, headlined by the usual suspect for the Redbirds. It was also the first career start for Carter, Smith and Soto-Aguirre, while it was Lancaster’s second career start.
Fitzsimons tallied the first points of the match with a quick slam dunk before both squads went on a brief scoring hiatus with Boscobel’s Dylan Johnson making a jumper inside the paint to tie things up at two points each at 15:55 following a pair of free throws missed by Bulldog Gabe Davis.
Fitzsimons kept the Redbirds ahead or tied with two more field goals — the first coming off a rebound inside the paint that he promptly put up, and the second coming off an inbounds pass from Brady Long.
Boscobel’s scoring was a little more spread out to open the game, with its second and third baskets — both two-pointers — coming from Hunter Gunderson and Davis, respectively, keeping the Bulldogs on pace with Darlington for the opening third of the half.
The turning point for the Redbirds was a timeout by Uppena to avoid a jump ball that would’ve given Boscobel a possession. It also gave Uppena a chance to collect his team and give them the kick they needed to push the Bulldogs to their breaking point.
The next 10 minutes saw Darlington go on a scoring tear, as the team scored 24 points while Boscobel only mustered eight points.
To say the Redbirds were flying around the court would be an understatement — they forced turnovers left and right that led to points — Lancaster scored his only points of the half immediately following the timeout, and Will Murray followed that up with a layup off a Long steal to pull to a four-point advantage over the Bulldogs, 10-6.
By the 10-minute mark, Darlington doubled Boscobel’s score with a two-point jumper from Reagan Jackson, and Long even tallied a quick two to bring things to 14-6 for the squad.
The Bulldogs finally responded with a 3-pointer — one of six they made on the night — from Gunderson, that Murray responded with a prompt two-point jumper.
Fitzsimons helped the Redbirds more than double their opponent’s score yet again, 20-9, with a pair of twos — the first resulting from a rebound, the second a product of his second dunk of the night.
By 5:47, the score crept further in favor of Darlington, 23-11, with a 3-point play coming from Long, while Boscobel struggled to keep up by way of a Davis two-pointer.
Following a close two by T.J. Bell for the Bulldogs, the Redbirds went on another scoring tear, albeit a bit smaller, putting up seven unanswered points over one and a half minutes. Four of those points came off fast breaks resulting from Bosocbel turnovers — both assisted by Lancaster, the first to Carter, the second to Murray.
The other three points came by way of free throws; Jackson made the second of two free throws, while Murray hit both of his one-and-ones to put Darlington up, 30-13.
For the closing three and a half minutes, Murray continued to be a force to be reckoned with on the court — being involved with or scoring each of the Redbirds’ last ten points of the half.
The first saw him going to the line for two following a fouled shot attempt resulting from an offensive rebound — he made both attempts — then he followed it up with another two points off a steal at 2:47.
Less than 30 seconds later, Will Murray hit another two-pointer, followed by an assist to Carter Murray. Will Murray finished out the first half of scoring with another pair of free throws made in the closing seconds.
On the Bulldog side of the court, it wasn’t that there was no scoring to be had, just that Darlington matched them at every turn.
In the same way that Will Murray was the leading scorer for the Redbirds, leading all scorers in the game with a staggering 27 points on the night, Davis was the second-highest scorer in the game, putting up 19 points.
Davis was also the sole reason for Boscobel scoring any points from 3:35 to the end of the half, starting off by going 1-for-2 at the free-throw line. Davis then answered Will Murray’s second field goal in the same amount of time with a field goal of his own.
Following Will Murray’s assist to Carter Murray, Davis put up the Bulldog’s biggest run of the half, firing in a 3-pointer at 1:14. He followed with a quick two pointer less than 20 seconds later, bringing the deficit for Boscobel to 19 points after Will Murray’s drained pair of free throws brought the score to 40-21. It would’ve been 40-24, but Tucker Schmid-Cox’s buzzer-beater 3-pointer missed the mark.
The goal for Darlington in the second half was to have a repeat performance of the first half, and the squad also got their two remaining seniors on the court — Riggs Black and Triten Lancaster — to start the second half.
For the most part, their game plan went to perfection, tallying more points — 44 points — in the second half than they did in the first, and while the Bulldogs saw more scoring opportunities, the Redbirds were able to extend their lead.
Buschor, who tallied zero points off two free-throw attempts in the first half, scored nine points in the second half, and Fitzsimons and Long both put six points on the board to close the game; however, Will Murray was the life force behind the Redbirds yet again, putting up another 11 points to lead second-half scoring for the squad.
It’s also worth noting at this point that Will Murray went a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line to match the exact number of shots he drained on the night — all nine completions came from inside the arc.
While scoring was the main focus for Darlington, shutting down Davis’ production was also another point of concern for the Redbirds, and they were successful in those endeavors as well, nearly halving his first-half production with only seven second-half points.
When the final buzzer rang, Darlington sent Boscobel home with their eleventh straight loss by a final score of 84-51.
“All seven seniors were able to play in both halves and some got their first career starts, which was earned by contributing so much time and energy to the program the last four years,” said Uppena. “It was great to come out on top with a win and to see the seniors all get a chance to contribute.”
