The North Callaway boys were staying close to the ball in the closing seconds of Wednesday night’s game at home.

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The Thunderbirds were tied at 47 with Eastern Missouri Conference foe Louisiana and forced the Bulldog ball handler into the baseline prior to a bounce pass reaching Kenny McCormick beyond the arc. He swished the ball to beat the buzzer and give North Callaway a 50-47 loss in a game that was made up from a previously postponed date..

McCormick’s fourth 3-pointer of the game handed the Thunderbirds (10-10, 3-3 EMO) their second straight conference loss by one possession. Head coach Matt Miller said they wanted to contain a couple of Louisiana’s players including McCormick, who finished with 12 points.

“We were in a diamond and one actually, and we put the one on (Jack Logan) because he’s their best player," Miller said. "Then we said we got to find (McCormick) because he’s their second-best threat. We defended it really well, but the guy drove into the paint, made a great pass, and our defender had a great close out. It was a little too much space, but a great close out and guy hit a tough shot. Tip your hat.”

Logan was the one who tied the game at 47 with about 45 seconds remaining, capping his line of 10 points, nine rebounds and a block. Donovan Richards followed with seven points for Louisiana (14-7, 4-3 EMO).

Matthew Weber led the Thunderbirds with 13 points, Sam Pezold followed with nine points, eight rebounds and four steals, and Isiah Craighead had eight points off the bench.

North Callaway’s prior two meetings with Louisiana were also each decided by one possession as the Bulldogs have been able to disrupt North Callaway’s offense as was the case Wednesday night.

“It was just rhythm — spacing, pacing and rhythm,” Miller said. “We had good spacing but not good spacing, not good timing and not good rhythm.”

Miller said he observed the ball stopping too much as he wished the Thunderbirds pushed the ball more and did more cutting and moving on offense. 

A key reason why North Callaway was a little out of rhythm was because senior point guard Braydn O’Neal had to leave the game in the first quarter with a knee injury. At the time, Miller said he didn’t know the extent of the injury but hoped to receive good news because O’Neal factors in so much on both sides of the court.

“He’s our best ball handler, our best passer, and initiates our offense,” Miller said. “You lose your senior point guard, that’s bigger than a lot of people think. He’s also our energy guy on defense. Before he got hurt tonight, he was getting a lot of deflections and a lot of steals early on. We missed that energy on the floor for sure.”

North Callaway owned the lead for most of the game, starting before halftime when it was 25-21. Aidan Martin and Pezold each picked up an offensive putback to give the Thunderbirds the slight edge that consistently stayed around six points and grew to as much as nine at one point.

Logan was a bigger problem on the glass in the second half as he picked up three of his rebounds in the third quarter and added three more in the fourth. North Callaway was at seven fouls starting at the 5:29 mark in the fourth quarter and two of their primary post players, Craighead and Trenton Jones, each had four fouls.

“That was one of the things we talked about postgame in the locker room. We didn’t rebound the basketball very well,” Miller said. “We have more size than they do, but they went and got it. Sometimes, rebounding is about going and getting it and (Logan) goes and gets it. A lot of it was positioning and guys were in foul trouble. If you’re in foul trouble, that’s not what you’re worried about. You go get rebounds.”

McCormick hit a key 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to tie at 38 before North Callaway took the lead again at 47-43 on a Weber off-balance jumper. Weber scored eight of his points in the second half.

In retrospect, Miller said perhaps North Callaway couldn’t benefitted by trapping more on defense to hurry up the methodical approach of Louisiana.

“We kind of went away from that in the second half” Miller said. “In hindsight, we probably should have gone back to more traps in the second half, They did a good job running the offense — being patient and getting the shots they wanted.”

North Callaway played at conference foe Elsberry (15-6, 4-1 EMO) on Friday prior to competing at conference opponent Wright City (2-12, 0-4 EMO) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.