12-08-2018
BY JACK BULLOCK
NASHVILLE – After spending two weeks on the road playing tournament games and one regular season contest, the Nashville Hornets on Saturday night made their way back into their comfort zone; the Assembly Hall.

Coach Wayne Harre's club, the preseason ABV 2A top ranked team, had conquered five teams on the road.

After winning the Wesclin/Mascoutah Tournament, the Hornets won their SIRR Mississippi Division opener Friday night at Anna-Jonesboro.

On Saturday the home opener proved to be little more than a speed bump in what is expected to be a long 2018-19 journey.

Nashville jumped all over Waterloo Gibault in the first few minutes and never let up as they cruised to an easy 54-21 victory.

Nashville improved to 6-0 on the season as 6-foot-5 junior guard Carson Parker netted a game-best 22-points on the night.

In fact Parker outscored the Hawks by himself in the win.

Senior guard Bryson Bultman added 13-points while grabbing six-rebounds for the Hornets while junior Matt Anderson pitched in eight-points.

Anderson nearly had a double-double as he yanked down 10-rebounds.

However the story of the night was on the defensive end of the floor for Coach Harre's team.

The Hornets forced Gibault into a very poor evening in every category.

Coach Dennis Rueter's team hit just 2-of-15 shots in the first half and they finished up 6-of-32 for the 32 minutes.

Nashville out-rebounded the Hawks 36-18 and added to their problems by forcing 13 Gibault turnovers.

Eleven of the rebounds were on the offensive glass.

Those are not exactly the numbers the visitors needed to see on the stat sheet.

“We have a size advantage on them (Gibault) but you have to go get it and we did a good job of going and getting the rebounds tonight,” said Coach Harre. “And we executed our offense really well. We got into a bit of lull there in the second quarter and we got into a little bit of foul trouble. Overall it was a pretty solid effort this weekend.”

Nashville was much better from the floor, nailing down 24-of-51 attempts.

And perhaps more importantly they took care of the ball, especially in the first half where they ended what little drama there was after the opening tap.

Nashville didn't commit its first turnover until 2:36 remaining in the second quarter and finished with just seven, six in the final two periods.

Gibault didn't put a player in double-digits in scoring as they saw their mark slip to 3-4 overall on the year.

“We're not very good right now and even if are playing well, we're physically not able to match up with them (Nashville) in size and quickness,” said Coach Rueter. “They're much quicker than people give them credit for. They are so long and quick we couldn't do anything with them.”

Senior guard Karson Huels led Gibault with five-points while teammates; Gavin Kohnz and John Adams added four-points each.

Nashville was so dominant in the first half that the Hawks didn't reach double-figures in scoring as a team until the third quarter.

Parker, Bultman and Anderson all scored in the early going as they had little problem running their offense while finishing around the rim.

Parker scored three different times in the lane, twice on drives to the basket and another time on an offensive rebound.

When he netted the third of those scores, Gibault needed its second timeout of the first quarter as Nashville led 15-2.

After a Huels rebound basket, which was the Hawks first made field goal, Bultman closed the quarter with a rebound basket and then a 3-pointer from the right corner that closed the first frame at 23-4 Hornets.

Four consecutive made shots by the Hornets opened the second quarter.

Parker scored two of the baskets while Bultman and Anderson followed those up with a rebound put back each.

The Anderson bucket made it 31-4 with 3:16 left in the half.

Kohnz scored all four of his points in succession with two free throws and a shot in the paint.

The 4-0 run was the only one made by Gibault.

Another Anderson rebound sent the game to intermission at 33-8.

“We are nothing fancy (defensively) we just like to stay between them and the basket. Try to make people shoot over us and we also have to rebound,” said Coach Harre. “If you don't defensive rebound they your defense isn't as good.”

The best quarter of the night for Gibault came in the third as they finally got a few things to go right.

Coach Rueter got a pair of 3-pointers, one each by Huels and senior Dylan Altadonna.

Parker, however, scored 10-points in the third quarter with four made baskets in close to the goal and a pair of free throws.

A nice spinning move on the blocks by Parker closed the Hornets third quarter scoring as they went to the fourth up 43-17.

An 8-2 run by Nashville triggered the 30-point mercy rule continuous clock with just over four minutes left.

Bultman, Parker scored and then consecutive trips saw Anderson take nice assists from both Bultman and Parker that produced easy scores.

Nashville reserve guard Jacob Maschhoff hit a 3-pointer with just under a minute left to close the scoring.

The Hornets will head back on the road next week with two of their three games at Chester on December 11 and at Benton on December 15.

Friday night Nashville will host SIRR Mississippi Division rival Sparta.

Gibault's schedule doesn't get much easier as they will host Breese Mater Dei, play at cross-town rival Waterloo and then host Okawville before the Columbia/Freeburg Holiday Tournament begins December 26.

“I thought our defense did a good job right away. I thought we came excited. We hadn't played a home game after five games on the road and I'm pretty happy the way we started,” said Coach Harre. “We've got a good mixture of people who can score and handle the ball, we just have to keep working to get better because everyone else is going to keep working.