Peterson drops in 34 to lead Storm past Comets

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Austin Peterson fires for the Storm at Sterling Newman Friday. He had 34 points in the Storm’s 64-56 win. (BCR photo/Shawn Doubet)

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STERLING – With just over two minutes left in the third quarter Friday night, the Bureau Valley Storm had seen its five-point halftime lead evaporate into a 37-33 deficit at the hands of a 12-3 Newman Comet run. Austin Peterson then dropped three-pointers on four consecutive trips up the floor to give his team a 45-37 lead at the end of the third quarter, on its way to a 64-56 win.

Peterson had his best effort of the season, playing nearly the entire 32 minutes and leading all scorers with 34 points.

“Austin made the shots,” BV coach Brad Bickett said, “but Austin would be the first also to give the credit to the other guys who found him. We delivered the ball to him. Austin would say that, ‘Yeah, he’s thrilled that he made the shots, but he wouldn’t have made the shots if the other guys wouldn’t have gotten him the ball at the opportune time.’”

The Storm opened the game strong, as Peterson hit nine of his 11 first quarter points in the first three minutes as the Storm opened an 18-11 lead at the end of one.

The Prophets cut the storm lead to five with a 14-12 second quarter, giving the Storm its 30-25 lead going into the break.

After coming back to take the lead in the third quarter, the Storm denied the Comets of a run to get back into the game, hitting 12 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter, 8 of 10 in the final 1:30, to seal the victory.

“It was an unbelievable team effort,” Bickett said. “I appreciate all of the players that were in uniform tonight. Everyone was in the game. Our crowd was great. Any time you go on the road, in any league, it’s hard to win. Newman has always been a hard place for us to play. For us to come out and play the way that we did tonight, I’m just so proud of the guys.

“It’s just been one of those weeks. Kids made some choices, and they played Storm basketball tonight. I’m just really proud of them.”

BV played without leading scorer Alex Franklin, who was not in uniform Friday. Bickett declined comment.

Newman was without head coach Mike Papoccia, who left to be with his wife, who was stricken by a heart attack.

• The Bureau Valley sophomores completed the sweep Friday, defeating the Newman sophomores 54-42 in the preliminary game. Bryce Walters led the Storm with 16 points followed by Ethan Ringle (15) and Derrick Johnson (12).

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