Berthoud Weekly Surveyor | Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot

Boys basketball winding down difficult season

February 16, 2017 | Boys Basketball

By Dan Karpiel
The Surveyor

In modern American culture, sports have what many believe to be an out-sized level of significance. The life lessons learned, especially at the amateur levels, are what really matters at the end of the day.

The Berthoud High School boys basketball team is having a season to forget. Berthoud dropped their two most recent games in blow-out fashion, falling by a 72-40 final in the home-court finale on Feb. 10 and then getting shellacked by more than 60 points, 93-32, in Windsor on Tuesday. The losses drop the Spartans season mark to 2-20 overall and 1-12 in Tri-Valley Conference (TVC) play, the program’s worst mark since the 2007-08 season.

Yet, as Berthoud Head Coach Mike Burkett explained earlier in the season, “If you give everything you have, and you’re short, in a competition, someone just beats you, there’s no shame in that. That’s what the kids need to understand, there’s no shame in that.”

Despite being held scoreless through the first 3:48, Berthoud made things competitive against Frederick. A pair of three-pointers from sophomore Curtis Peacock and one more each from Josh Doyle and Ben Burkett helped Berthoud overcome an early deficit. After one, the Spartans trailed by only six, 20-14. That was the Spartans last gasp, however, as the visiting Warriors assembled a 14-2 run in the first five minutes of the second period as Berthoud shot a paltry two-for-10 from the floor.

Treys in the third period from Doyle, Peacock and Jake Yuska were not enough for Berthoud, as Frederick was able to out-score their hosts 14-11 as they held a commanding lead. By the end of three it was 55-33 in Warriors’ favor, and after out-scoring Berthoud 17-7 in the final eight minutes the Warriors cruised to the 32-point victory.

“If we’re going to rebuild this program, we’re going to need guys who compete every night, all night,” Burkett explained mid-season. “If we can find those guys that are willing to compete, and we have a few of them, the guys who come to play every night, then I know we can turn this program around.”

Things got worse for Berthoud Tuesday night as they traveled to Windsor to take on the Wizards, a team they had beaten earlier in the season in a tournament game at Vista Peak High School in Denver. The Spartans scored in the single-figures in each of the game’s four periods, tallying seven, nine, nine and seven in four quarters of play. Windsor, on the other hand, scored 29, 18, 25 and 21 on the board to run away with the 61-point win. Four Wizards hit double-digits in scoring on the night.

Berthoud (2-10, 1-12 conf.) will conclude the 2016-17 season when they travel to Mead (18-4, 11-2 conf.) to take on the rival and TVC second-place Mavericks on Feb. 17.

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