The first one is always the toughest. At least that’s how the saying goes.
For the Perryville boys basketball team, it probably felt that way. However, they don’t need to worry about that anymore.
Perryville led a majority of the way as they defeated First Baptist Academy (O’Fallon, Ill.) 57-49 to secure their first win of the season Tuesday at Perryville High School.
For Perryville coach Rick Dunn and his squad it’s a huge weight off their shoulders.
“We’ve had a pretty big monkey on our backs and it feels good to finally get it off,” he said. “It was a big relief and you could tell from the reaction of the guys when the final buzzer sounded just how much they wanted this.”
Junior Andrew Terbrak led the way for the Pirates (1-13) with 16 points, while Jackie Truong had 12 and Robert Ussery had 11 points.
The Eagles led 4-2 to begin the game, but when Troung hit a three to give Perryville a 7-4 advantage they never trailed again.
Troung was a big part of the offensive outburst in the opening quarter for the Perryville, scoring 10 points.
Perryville was up as many as 14 in the quarter as they led 20-10 after the first eight minutes.
“Jackie made some shots early, which got us off to a good start in the game,” Dunn said. “He got into some foul trouble after that and was never able to get back into an offensive rhythm again, but fortunately for us we had some players step up in his place. Robert Ussery made some baskets, and Andrew Terbrak did his thing in the post and hit his free throws.”
Troung picked up his third foul with five minutes left in the second quarter with the Pirates leading 24-16.
Dunn felt like it took his team a second to adjust to its senior point guard missing extended minutes.
“They were able to cut into the lead on us when Jackie came out,” Dunn said. “You are certainly going to miss your senior leader out there.”
Dunn credited multiple players for keeping the team rolling, even though they may not have the points in the box score.
“Justin Wingerter stepped up and had the best night of his career,” Dunn said. “He may not show up in the stat sheet, but his ball handling, maturity and decision making made a big difference for us when Jackie was out.”
First Baptist went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 28-25. The charge was mostly led by the Eagles’ Rider Courtney, who led all scorers with 26 points. However, the Pirates never really folded.
“Basketball is a game of runs and they had theirs at times and we were able to counter right back,” Dunn said.”
That was true at the end of the second quarter when Ussery broke First Baptist’s run with a jumper in the final minute and Dalton Jenkins had an offensive rebound and putback at the buzzer as Perryville led 30-25 at halftime.
Perryville kept their opponents at arm’s length for much of the second half , although First Baptist did cut the deficit to just three points early in the fourth quarter at 44-41.
Perryville responded with a basket by Terbrak and a steal and layup by Troung to put them back ahead 50-43 with 4:15 remaining in the game.
The turning point in the game for Dunn may have come nearly one minute later when he took a timeout with 3:03 remaining in the game and a four point lead.
“I told the guys that we were in the drivers seat,” Dunn said. “We weren’t going to quit trying to score, but we were only going to make good passes and move the ball and try to get good shots.”
Perryville must have took those words to heart because they outscored First Baptist 6-2 in the final three minutes.
“It’s good when your guys can execute adjustments in-game,” Dunn said. “It’s something we have really tried to improve on.”
That defense was indicative of what Dunn saw from his squad throughout the game. Perryville held Courtney to just two points in the final quarter and Dunn believes it was a product the defense from Ussery and Andrew Welk.
“Their defense was great against Courtney,” Dunn said. “He can play and I think their defense wore him down in the fourth quarter.”
Dunn has seen small improvements in his team all year, despite not winning games. The biggest probably came in the turnover department as the Pirates had 14 for the game.
“In the first eight games, we were averaging 34 turnovers a game,” Dunn said. “It’s hard to be competitive, let alone win games, if you are doing that. I’ve also seen small improvements in other areas as well.”
Perryville will continue its season Friday when they host Festus. The Tigers defeated Perryville on Dec. 17.
“We want to keep this thing rolling,” Dunn said.
