Bailey, Bryce lead Preston to revenge victory at Poky

POCATELLO — Two weeks ago, when Pocatello edged out Preston on the road for a one-point victory, Preston was without starting point guard Wayd Bailey — who was sidelined with a concussion.

Bailey was not just back on the court for round two between the conference rivals, he was the best player on it, scoring a career-best and game-high 27 points.

“It was really hard to watch, losing by one at home,” Bailey said after Wednesday’s game. “I knew we had to get the guys ready today to come out and make a statement.”

Behind its star sophomore, Preston (17-3, 3-1) made that statement, and likely secured a conference championship with a 56-36 victory over the Thunder (10-7, 2-1).

“He does so much for us,” head coach Tyler Jones said of Bailey. “He handles the ball, he’s our playmaker, he gets us going. When he’s out there, our confidence, as a team — we’re a different team. He was huge tonight.”

Bailey added three rebounds and two steals to his 27-point night. Senior Kasen Bryce chipped in with 12 points, six rebounds, five steals and a block. Poky was led by senior Hunter Cordell, who finished with eight points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

Bailey, along with the rest of his teammates, attacked the paint early and often in the first half, battling to a 22-12 lead with under a minute to play in the second quarter without the benefit of a single made 3-pointer. Finally, in a late-clock situation, Bailey knocked down his team’s first triple of the night, burying Pocatello in a 25-12 halftime hole.

As if it was the crack that broke the dam, Bailey led a 3-point barrage in the second half. The sophomore guard knocked down several contested step-back and pull-up triples, finishing with five of his team’s seven made deep balls.

He said after the game that the tough shots were not heat checks, but rather the product of a prepared player with ultimate trust in his stroke.

“It just comes out of confidence,” Bailey said. “When I start to feel it, when I start to make shots, it kinda just takes over, and I start shooting more difficult shots, but it doesn’t feel difficult. At the end of the day, I have confidence in my shooting, always, and tonight I was able to get hot.”

The long ball wasn’t the only tool the visiting team used to destroy any momentum Pocatello attempted to gather.

Preston threw down seven dunks as a team, five from the high-flying Bryce.

“That was amazing,” Bailey said of the 6-foot-2 Bryce. “I don’t know how he can jump that high.”

Bryce’s first two dunks came in transition. But then, with a sizable second-half lead, he got aggressive in half-court sets and attempted to spike it on Thunder heads several times.

He was turned away at the top once on an excellent block from Cordell. And after finishing a few and using them to pump up the visiting student section, he got creative and shorted a few more. With a 20-point lead and less than three minutes remaining in the game, he reacted to one of those missed dunks with an immediate foul 90 feet from the basket, giving the Thunder two free throws.

Jones subbed Bryce out of the game after the play, but grabbed the senior wing on his way to the bench for a very quick conversation.

After the game, the coach said that he wanted to make sure he told Bryce to keep up his style of play.

The key to Bryce’s game, Jones said, is his energy and competitive edge, and he never wants to stunt that. But he needed Bryce to know that, in that situation, the foul was not a smart play.

The win, in a “tough environment against a really good team,” as Jones put it, gives Preston and Pocatello a matching 2-1 conference record. The 5A District 5 tie-breaker, he explained, is, first, record against common opponents. If those records are tied at the end of the regular season, the conference championship and home-court advantage in the district tournament goes to the team ranked higher by MaxPreps.

Preston is currently ranked second in the state — behind Lewiston — with Pocatello sitting at ninth, meaning Preston sits on a massive advantage with less than two weeks before the start of district play.

“We feel like we have a great home-court advantage — Preston’s a tough place to play,” Jones said. “But you’ve got to win when it matters.”

Bailey called his team’s potential home-court advantage for the tournament “absolutely huge.”

But, as Jones said, where the games are played does not matter as much as how they are played — Pocatello already owns a win in Preston.

The key to success for Preston, despite the flash of 3-balls and dunks, according to Jones, is what they do defensively. The difference Wednesday, the coach said, was his team’s ability to play “solid,” “physical” defense for four quarters, which they did not do at home against the Thunder.

“That’s exactly what it’s going to take,” he said. “We hang our hat on defense and rebounding, and this year we haven’t been as good rebounding as we should be. But tonight, I thought we went toe-to-toe.”

Preston, Jones concluded, will look to use this performance as a momentum builder leading into the district tournament.