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Show I ' ..I The Bugs have to be the hard luck team in Bantam League games played during the past two weeks in the National Guard Armory. Vernal's Bugs scored 12 points and held the first place team, the Hawks, to three points on three free throws in the fourth quarter, but that wasn't enough as the Bugs were nipped by the Hawks, 19 to 17. Bantam League basketball games are unusual encounters in that a team can go from hot to cold and from cold to hot in the shooting world at any time. The Bugs were an extremely cold team in the first quarter of their game on March 27 as they were blanked by the Hawks, 7 to 0. The Bugs managed only a field goal in the second and third quarters, which were scored by David Gurr, but they shot the lights out at the National Guard Armory with a six field goal explosion in the fourth quarter. Jeff Palmer scored two field goals and Robert Drollinger, David Gurr, Jason Norton and Manuel Sisneros added one two-pointer each. The Haw"ks had a 16 to 5 lead going in the fourth quarter, but after the game was over they had only a two-point advantage. Vernal's Hawks were able to survive the 12-point bombing by the Bugs due to two clutch free throws by David Merino and one charity toss by Timothy Paugh. Vernal's Bantam League had its opener on February 21 and the Hawks thumped the Bugs by 23 points, 30 to 7, but the second time around on March 27 the game was a close encounter as the Hawks nipped the Bugs by two points, 19 to 17. The Bugs' two-point loss to the Hawks is the closest any team has come to knocking off the undefeated and first place team, the Hawks, in seven weeks. The Hawks are 7-0 and have defeated the Bugs, 30-7, 19-17; Knats, 30-15, 37-6; Mites, 23-14; Dinos, 44 to 21 and Rams, 41 to 12. Two teams, the Hawks and the Mites, are locked in a battle for first place. The Hawks are undefeated, but the Mites have only one loss in league play and that was a 23 to 14 setback to the Hawks. The Mites have won four games in a , row since their loss to the Hawks on March 6 and toppled the Knats, 53 to 14; defeated the Rams, 35 to 14 and downed the Dinos, 36 to 16. The Mites have also downed the Rams, 19-9 and Dinos, 31-22. The second Hawks-Mites encounter at the National Guard Armory will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. Vernal's Bugs suffered their second straight two-point loss when they were nipped by the Rams, 28 to 26. The game was tied at 6-6 at the end of the first quarter and the Bugs had leads of 14 to 10 after two quarters and 22 to 19 at the end of the third quarter, but a field goal by Quinn Downard with 20 seconds left in the ball game gave the Rams a two-point two-point win. Quinn Downard scored the winning field goal, but the main man in the ball game for the Rams was Scott Merkley who fired in 19 points. He scored 19 of the 28 Ram points. The Bugs' Manuel Sisneros put in a field goal for a 16 to 10 lead, but the Rams' Scott Merkely fired in nine straight points on four field goals and one free throw to give the Rams a 19 to 16 lead and put them back in the ball game. The Bugs regained the lead in the third quarter, but field goals by Robert Rhodes, Richard Rust, Quinn Downard and free throws by Scott Merkley and Richard Rust in the fourth quarter gave the Rams a 28 to 26 victory. Vernal's Rams and Bugs competed in their first battle on February 28 and the Bugs won that game by two points, 13 to 11. The Bugs have also suffered two-point two-point losses to the Knats, 16 to 14 and to the Hawks, 19-17. The Bugs defeated the Dinos, 36 to 30, in overtime. A shoe was responsible for a timeout being called early in the first quarter of a game between the Rams and the Bugs. The back of a player's right foot came out of his shoe and his team had only four men on offense as he struggled to get his shoe back on his foot. The player called timeout due to his foot being half way out of his shoe. The parents and the coaches are just about as much fun to watch as the players out on the court. When their son puts the ball in the hoop, the parents are as happy as a little kid with a new baseball bat, but when their child turns the ball over, they are as sad as a little kid with a new baseball bat that is broken. Some coaches are quiet and some basketball team bosses yell at every call made by the referees. Of course a lot of coaches don't have much to say when they have a huge lead, but when they are way behind, they have a good deal more to say. The main purpose of Bantam League basketball is for the hoopsters to have fun. Bantam League isn't high school, college or pro basketball, and many of the referees are learning just like the coaches and players about the game called basketball. |