Bayless Solves Affton’s Pressure, Pulls Away Late For Big Basketball Win

A big, raucous crowd filled the Kuhn Gymnasium Friday night at for a huge night of neighborhood rivalry basketball between the boys and girls teams from and Affton high schools.

The Affton girls cruised to a 57-14 win over the Bayless girls in the opener.

But the nightcap was the matchup everyone came to see—a true heavyweight showdown between the 5-1 Bayless and 5-2 Affton boys teams.

And even though both teams certainly delivered their share of thrills and chills, it was the boys from Bayless that proved superior Friday night, after pulling away from Affton in the third and fourth quarters, for a truly impressive 71-48 victory.

“That was a damn good win,” Bayless coach Pat Triplett said. “I always tell them that old saying, 'Practice makes perfect,' is the biggest lie ever told, because if you practice something the wrong way your whole life, you’ll always do it wrong. It’s perfect practice that makes perfect, and the boys did a good job tonight.”

The Bronchos turned a tight ballgame into a near blowout by perfectly passing through Affton’s full-court press and getting themselves layup after layup on the offensive end.

“We practice our press offense a lot,” Triplett said. “And I tell the boys if teams are going to press us, then that’s going to be a layup drill for us. If we can just be patient, and continue to reverse the ball, we’ll get the defense out of position, and then we’ll have our chance with three guys attacking the basket.”

And that’s exactly what Bayless got for most of the second half, as it continuously dissected Affton’s press and produced a number of easy baskets on the other end.

“We were so close to getting a couple of big steals in there,” Affton coach Mike Fitzgerald said. “A tip here, a tip there, it was close to being a little bit different of a game.”

In the first half, it absolutely was a different kind of game, as the host Cougars stayed right with Bayless and trailed just 29-23 at halftime.

Affton got a big first half from junior John Brannan, who scored 10 of his 11 points in the first two quarters.

But the second half was all Bayless, as sophomores Excell Harris and Edin Mehmedovic took over the game with a number of layups and spectacular shots.

Mehmedovic, as he often does, led the Bronchos on the stat sheet with 20 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots. Harris added 15 points, 6 steals and 6 assists for Bayless.

“With these sophomores, I figure it’ll take us a year to be real good,” Triplett said. “Right now, I consider us average. But I tell them, we can be real good right now if they just keep listening to what I say.”

Fellow sophomores Munir Hirkic (10 points), Patrick Triplett, Jr. (9 points, 6 assists) and Muhammed Poljo (8 points) also had big nights for the Bronchos.

For Affton, the star of the night was no doubt senior Sean Benedict, who finished the evening with game-high totals of 21 points and 13 rebounds.

In fact, it was Benedict’s breakaway dunk early in the second quarter that sparked a 9-2 Affton run, that gave the Cougars a 19-17 lead.

Unfortunately for Affton, a 3-pointer by senior Edmir Oric on Bayless’ next possession gave the Bronchos back a lead it would never relinquish again.

Benedict had three spectacular dunks in the ballgame, including analley-oop from teammate Halid Abera late in the third quarter that pulled Affton to 41-32.

“Sean had a great game,” Fitzgerald said. “He played well tonight. He’s so fun to watch. He’s just a great, great athlete.”

Too bad Benedict’s big night was enough though, as Affton never got closer than that nine-point deficit, and after a pair of 8-0, fourth-quarter Bayless runs, the Bronchos were able to push their lead to 65-45 with 3:10 left in the game.

From there, it was just a matter of running out the clock to officially move Bayless’ record to 6-1, while Affton fell to 5-3.

“It was fun to watch that game,” Triplett said. “They were doing some things with dribble handoffs in the first half, and they were attacking the basket. We made some defensive adjustments in the second half, and it kind of stifled what they wanted to do.”

Both teams are now off until after Christmas, but will both be in action in different holiday tournaments during the winter break.

Bayless is playing in the Chaminade Tournament, a six-team event, which will feature pool-play games on Dec. 27 and 28, before a final night of first, third, and fifth-place games on Dec. 30.

Just this week, the Bronchos learned that their schedule at the Chaminade event will consist of 5:30 p.m. games against Pattonville on Dec. 27, and Chaminade on Dec. 28.

Affton is hosting its own holiday event Dec. 27 to 29.

The Affton Holiday Basketball Tournament will feature eight teams in a traditional tournament bracket with the championship games set for Dec. 29.

The Cougars were voted the No. 1 seed for the event and will open up play with a 10 a.m. game Dec. 27 against No. 8 seed Valley Park. 

Highlights of the Bayless-Affton boys basketball game were featured on KTVI-Channel 2’s live Friday night sportscast.