Perryville boys basketball coach Rick Dunn already had the headline thought out for his team’s latest game.
“The headline should read that ‘the Pirates did just enough in victory,’” Dunn said. “This was the ultimate game for that because we made just enough jump shots, we made just enough free throws, we forced just enough turnovers.”
However, he will gladly take it.
Perryville outscored West County 13-5 in the fourth quarter to edge the Bulldogs 37-34 on Thursday to claim their first victory of the season. It was a game of a lot of firsts as the victory was the first in Dunn’s head coaching career. It also marked the first victory for Perryville on their home court since Dec. 7, 2018, when the Pirates defeated Fredericktown 69-49.
“It was a big monkey off our backs,” Dunn said. “That is for sure. This was a game that aged me about 10 years.”
Perryville (1-8) was led by Trevor Schnurbusch who had 10 points, while Dylan Hawkinson and Trey Scruggs each had 8 points.
None of those points were bigger in Dunn’s mind than the 3-pointer from Scruggs with 4:45 left in regulation to bring the Pirates within 33-31. It was the only 3-pointer Perryville made in the game.
“I knew that if someone could make a jump shot that we could get some momentum and turn the tide,” Dunn said. “I told Trey that if he would be ready for us to swing the ball to him and he could get his feet set and step into a shot that eventually one would fall.”
From that moment on, West County (2-4) scored just a single point the remainder of the game, and went scoreless the final 3:53 of the contest. Andrew Terbrak made sure of that as he came up with consective blocks on one possession, which turned into a Scruggs lay-up on the fast break to pull Perryville within 34-33 with 2:25 remaining.
Hawkinson gave Perryville only its second lead of the game at 35-34, as he scored with one minute remaining.
It wasn’t easy to hang on to that lead as Dawson Camden came away with a steal and could have forced a fast break, but smartly pulled the ball out to run clock. West County was eventually forced to foul and Scruggs made one of two free throws to give Perryville a 36-34 lead.
“That was a big play for us to get that turnover and then for Dawson to make the smart play and pull the ball out and run the clock was as big as any shot we made or defensive stop we had,” Dunn said.
It wasn’t over there as an inbounds play went awry for West County and Perryville was able to steal the ball and eventually a foul again in Scruggs that was deemed intentional. He again made one of two for the final margin. West County had one final heave in the final second that came up short.
“I believe that any game we are going to win this year, will look like that,” Dunn said. “We are going to have to make it an ugly game.”
That’ s exactly what they did as Perryville forced a total of 30 turnovers, but had 25 themselves in the contest. Those especially came back to bite them in the first quarter where they had eight. West County jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first six minutes after a 3-pointer from Mason Simily. West County led 12-4 after the first quarter, but Perryville was able to rebound in the second.
The Pirates were able to use their quickness to start the quarter on a 6-0 run when Terbrak converted on a lay-up and the Pirates were able to convert a steal by Hawkinson into a lay-up by Schurbusch to pull within 12-10.
West County countered with a three by Garrison Turner, who led the Bulldogs, along with Simily with 10 points. That lead grew to six at 18-12 with four minutes left in the first half. However, West County scored just one basket the rest of the way as the Pirates took a brief lead at 19-18 in the final minute before the Bulldogs hit a shot at the buzzer to go into the break ahead 20-19.
“The gameplan was to pressure them from the opening tip and wear them down,” Dunn said. “I thought that as the game wore on you could see that their guards were not good with the pressure. I also knew that we average about 22 turnovers per game ourselves and we would have to turn them over a lot to have a chance.”
The numbers bear that out as West County was forced into 17 second-half miscues.
Dunn wasn’t looking to far ahead on the schedule as he was going to soak this one in for the time being.
“It was great to see the guys smile after the game,” Dunn said. “There were some guys that didn’t get into the game, but that was the most energy that they’ve had on the bench all year. You could tell it meant a lot to everybody.”
