THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Palisade High School Athletics

The Palisade boys basketball team went on a roller coaster ride on Saturday to secure its first win of the season. The Bulldogs trailed 20-7 late in the first quarter against Basalt, before going on a 19-0 run to take the lead for good only to hold off a late comeback from the Longhorns to win 69-66 at the Warrior Challenge. Such a game is the sign of a young team, said Palisade Cory Hitchcock of his roster which has only three seniors and one freshman and sophomore. “It comes in waves when you’ve got a young team like that,” he said. “You do some great things and you do some dumb things. You just got to keep plugging away.” But after getting on his players after the opening quarter, Hitchcock said his team came back fighting strong in the second quarter. “I thought we came out kind of flat in the first,” Hitchcock said. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting these guys ready to go. Our starting lineup is coming out a little flat the last couple of games and I’ve got to find a way to get them juiced up and ready to go. I think our guys need to look at themselves in the mirror and figure out what they’ve got to do to be ready to go.” Still, the coach said he was proud of how the players rallied. “We came back and took the lead,” Hitchcock said. “... Our guys work hard and they compete but they make a lot of boneheaded plays at times which happens with young guys. I’ve got to keep coaching them up and keep preparing them and focused.” The Bulldogs (1-2) had four players in double figures with Hunter Howard leading the way with 18. Layne Ruppelius scored 11 and Carter Hayward and LJ Ballenger each had 10 points. Palisade will have to adjust its offense as the Bulldogs are missing their leading scorer from last season, Luke Fay. Hitchcock said scoring will have to come from several players — including Ballenger, Hayward, Ruppelius and Fred Moore. “We’ve got some guys who can score the ball for us,” he said. “We need those guys to knock down shots. … But it’s going to be someone else’s night every night. We just need to get some consistency where we can get multiple guys in double digits.” On defense, Palisade didn’t have an answer for Basalt’s Elias Schendler, who scored 32, most of which came from the post. Hitchcock said even though he liked his team’s defensive effort, the Bulldogs need to get better guarding the post. “We’ve got to be better than that,” he said. “We’ve got to be a little bit more physical in the post and not let the big man get in position. Once we do that we’ll be OK.” Palisade’s defense had a terrific second quarter, allowing only four points. However, the Bulldogs struggled in the fourth quarter as the Longhorns put up 28 in the frame. Basalt cut the lead to one with about 20 seconds left to play but Ballenger hit two big free throws late. Howard came up with a steal with five seconds remaining to stop Basalt from forcing overtime.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Palisade High School Athletics

BULLDOGS GET FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON

ANDREW KISER

GJ Sentinel | 12/3/2023