Porcupines beat Dodson by 100

The Nashua boys' basketball team got its season off to a roaring start demolishing Dodson in the opener 107-7.

That's not a typo, the Porcupines won the game by 100 points.

“It's hard with games like that,” Nashua head coach Gary Fisher said. “In a game like this we want to make sure everybody stays healthy, but we still have to get up and down. It's a game. We try to keep that intensity and it's hard to tell the kids to quit playing.”

Dodson, who has played the Porcupines tough the last few years, was without some of its top players on Saturday. Many of the Coyotes were ineligible for the game due to either academics or not having played the required 10 practices to play in the first game. Because of that, the team was left with only five eligible players for Saturday's game, two of them freshmen.

Early on, Dodson looked as if they would hang around. Freshman Rocky Lewis cut the Porcupines lead in half, 6-3, with a three-pointer 1:30 into the game. The Coyotes were playing tough defense and forcing Nashua to run some of its half court offense in the early going, but directly following the Lewis three, senior Shae Stein answered with a three of his own and the rout was on. Dodson scored only two more points in the quarter as the Porcupines took the lead 29-5 after the first quarter.

The game was all Nashua for the rest of the game. The Porcupines pulled off the full-court defense midway through the first but were still able to force turnovers and get rebounds that led to the fast break. They scored 31 more in the second quarter to take a halftime lead of 60-5.

Though seemingly out of reach, the buzz started to build in the gym if the Porcupines could, or would, hit 100 points in the game. With the 55-point halftime lead, Fisher wouldn't play his starters but just a few minutes in the second half.

“It's like sharks feeding, they smelled blood in the water,” Fisher said. “It's hard to tell kids to settle down … Everyone contributed, I played all 11 guys. I didn't put the starters in for too much longer, they needed to get a good workout too. It's a tough game like that, you're not trying to run the score up but you're trying to keep that high level of intensity.”

The mercy rule was enacted and the teams played with a running clock for the entire second half but playing without a bench caught up with Dodson as more and more of the Porcupines points came from breakaway layups. By the end of the third quarter Nashua held the lead 87-5 and it seemed more when rather than if the Porcupines would score 100.

Junior Ryan Dahl scored the basket that put the Porcupines into triple digits with 3:15 remaining in the game. Leading 101-5, the bench clamored for just a few more points to see if they could win by 100 points.

It almost didn't happen. As time wound down, Lewis, who scored the first points of the game for Dodson, drove down the court and was fouled as he hit a layup, sending him to the line to shoot a free throw. Now trailing 107-7, Lewis had the chance to save a little face for the Coyotes with the free throw, but the shot went awry, and the clock ticked out.

Every player that saw the court for Nashua scored on Saturday, including five Porcupines who scored in double digits on the night. Brandon Hansard and Wilbert Ackerman led the team with 20 points each.

Hansard, Dustin Kelm, Shae Stein and Anthony Bengochea all scored at least 10 points despite not playing in the fourth quarter.

On Tuesday, the Porcupines didn't win quite as big but still managed to beat Frazer handily, 85-39.

The Bearcubs tried to run with Nashua, and were successful for the first quarter, but fell behind in the second. The Porcupines outscored Frazer 29-8 in the second quarter.

Ackerman led the Porcupines on scoring on Tuesday with 18 points. Sheldon Brown was Frazer's leading scorer with 12 points.

The Porcupines will take on Fairview and Culbertson this weekend.