Bears playing well

The new year has been kind to the Bryan varsity boys basketball team.

The Golden Bears are 4-1 in 2009 with wins over Archbold, Patrick Henry and Van Wert -- teams they rarely beat.

They have been playing the way I expected them to play after an impressive showing against No. 1-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf -- which lost two over the weekend for its first losses -- in the season-opener and they've been doing it by getting the ball down low to 6-7 Austen Alabata.

Alabata had an impressive weekend. He had 12 points in Friday night's 55-42 win over PH and had 13 points and six blocks in Saturday's 52-43 win over Van Wert.

He's playing more aggressive and his teammates are making a conscious effort to get him the ball down low, especially in the opening quarter. Alabata had six points in the first quarter on Friday and 11 Saturday.

And you can't forget Matt Jones who tore it up over the weekend with 38 points in the two games. He's been the catalyst for the Bears on the offensive end all season and with Alabata stepping up, that's a good 1-2 punch.

The first quarter's been somewhat of a problem for the Bears in their seven losses and even in some of their five wins, but the last two games they've been redhot to start the game. They raced out to a 21-8 lead against PH and had a 15-9 lead against Van Wert.

If they can continue to have strong starts and not drop off during the remaining three quarters, they will be hard to beat over the course of rest of the season.

Speaking of the rest of the season, of the remaining eight games on Bryan's schedule, only two teams have a winning record -- Evergreen (9-2) and Hicksville (9-3).

The other six teams have a combined record of 15-49.

Three of those foes are NWOAL opponents -- Montpelier (1-10), Delta (3-8) and Swanton (2-8) -- and if Bryan can get past those three, it sets up a showdown with Evergreen on Feb. 20 at BHS for a chance at a share of the NWOAL title. The Bears are one game behind the Vikings.

NOTES: The seven teams Bryan has lost to have a combined record of 54-15 and none of them have more than three losses. And the five teams Bryan has beaten have a combined record of 15-41.