It was kind of hard to tell as Union Star, with only six players out, was totally outmatched. But Northeast's Junior High Boys showed that they had a small but athletic bunch on the floor as they ran past the Trojans 36-2 Monday. Shaun Burns, a small but athletic post player, led the way for Northeast, scoring 12 in the first quarter and 18 altogether as his teammates were feeding him the ball at will and letting him do the rest. "He's a very athletic player," said Coach Charley Burch. "He would normally be a 3-man, but he's the tallest kid we had out there." Steve Schulte, the younger brother of Jacqueline and Michelle, ran the point and constantly pushed the ball up the floor, got the ball to the open man, and played the same sort of relentless defense that his older sisters are known for. "He's the one who sets the show for the rest of the team," said Burch.
But while Northeast had an easy time of it Monday, Coach Burch said he wasn't promising an easy time of it the rest of the way. "We're going to have our hands full at Jefferson Thursday," he said. And he said that the scoring leaders would vary from night to night. He said the team needed to work on getting better on their press and finishing better. Union Star did not have a lot of size, meaning Northeast got a lot of second and third looks. "We can't expect those sorts of chances against taller and better teams," he said. "We have to knock down the shot the first time."
Shaun Burns opened the scoring with an inside shot with 5:30 left in the first and then Steve Schulte made a nifty move to the basket to draw the two-shot foul and hit both of his foul shots. For the rest of the quarter, Burns did all of the scoring. First, he scored inside off a Schulte feed, scored a layup after Schulte got a steal off the press, hit two more inside shots, the last coming off a high-low pass from Joel Scroggie. Burns finished with a driving layup to round out his eruption in the first quarter. That left Northeast with a 14-0 lead going into the second.
Some of the other players began to get in on the act in the second quarter. Austin Jones got a layup off a Brandon Auffert steal. Joel Scroggie then hit a pair of shots, one off a steal and one after he cleaned up after another steal as Northeast was jumping passes at will. Steve Schulte scored a driving layup and then Burns scored an inside shot off a feed from Austin Jones with 30 seconds left in the half to make it 24-0.
The avalanche continued in the third quarter. Brandon Auffert opened the scoring off a steal with 5:45 left, and then Garrett Jackson got on the board with a shot from the baseline. Shaun Burns then rounded out his scoring for the night with a steal and drive and then a putback to make it 32-0 after three quarters.
The only tense point was whether Northeast would keep a shutout, a rarity in basketball even at the junior high level. With the running clock going, Austin Jones scored off a steal with 3:59 left. It looked for a while like Northeast would keep the shutout, but finally, Kolby Barnett scored off a drive with 2:30 left in the game for Union Star to break the shutout. Brandon Auffert scored from outside after Austin Jones got an offensive board and a kickout with 1:55 left to round out the scoring for Northeast.
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