Ben Fisher is adjusting quite nicely to the role he is being asked to play for this season’s boys’ basketball team.

Fisher scored a career-high 43 points in an 81-51 win over a short-handed Binger-Oney team December 12 at the Binger-Oney Invitational Tournament.

His previous high of 31 points came against Little Axe last season. Fisher started the week by scoring 26 points in the Bulldogs’ 60-41 win over Ninnekah on December 9.

The 5-foot-8 point guard added 28 points in a 67-61 tournament loss to Union City on December 11 and 19 points in a 69-55 loss to Sayre in the fifth-place game December 13.

Against Union City, Wayne struggled on the backboards and gave up 13 offensive rebounds.

“They had a post kid with 18 rebounds against us,” Wayne coach Jackson Embry said. “We just couldn’t keep him off the boards. They had a lot of second- and third-chance points.”

Cameron Davis and Sloan Jackson contributed 10 points each for the Bulldogs, who also committed 11 turnovers.

“Just some self-inflicted stuff,” Embry said.

It was more of the same against Sayre which made 10 3-point shots and forced 17 Wayne turnovers, including seven in the third quarter. A 39-35 halftime deficit soon grew to double digits for Wayne (3-5).

For his efforts, Fisher was named to the All-Tournament team, Embry said.

Fisher, the team’s third-leading scorer a season ago behind seniors Jaxon Dill and Ty Kemp, has embraced his new role as team leader, Embry told The Register.

“He’s the type to look at what he did wrong in film to make his teammates and himself better,” Embry said. “He’s a dream to coach.

“The scoring outburst that he’s had this year is no coincidence. It was made in the long nights and extra hours in the gym when nobody was watching.”

Girls

Junior Taelyn Ringwald had 24 points and 13 rebounds in a 67-61 tournament loss to Binger-Oney on December 11.

Freshman Natalie Knobloch added 17 points and 16 rebounds, while guard Audra Watts had 11 points for the second-seeded Bulldogs.

Binger, which entered the game with nine 3-pointers in seven games, made 11 shots from beyond the arc against Wayne.

“They got hot in this tournament and really played well,” Embry said of the seventh seed, which beat the top three seeds to win the championship.

“They forced us to shoot the outside ball and we just couldn’t get it to fall.”

Ringwald repeated her feat with 24 points the next day in a 55-44 win over Hinton. Watts had 15 points, and Knobloch added 13 for the Bulldogs, who led 35-18 at halftime but managed just three points in the fourth quarter.

In Saturday’s fifth-place game, the Bulldogs came up short against Verden by a 50-37 score.

“We are definitely struggling to shoot the ball right now,” Embry said. “They know that it’s kind of killed us.”

Knobloch led Wayne with 21 points and 23 rebounds in a 68-36 win over Ninnekah on December 9. Watts added 26 points and eight rebounds for the Bulldogs (4-4).