Bulldogs Take One On The Nose In Scrimmage

By Alex Abrams

Posted: November 13, 2009 at 5:52 a.m.

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By Andy Shupe
Fayetteville senior forward Adam Nobel, right, is fouled by Colton Primm defends during the Bulldogs’ Purple-White game Thursday at Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — Standing on the sideline, Fayetteville coach Barry Gebhart became annoyed as he watched several of his players fail to hustle back on defense and looked confused at times on offense.

Gebhart also didn’t like seeing starting forward Adam Nobel kneeling on the court with his hand over his nose after accidentally getting hit by an elbow on Thursday night.

Still, some things went according to plan as Fayetteville — coming off an undefeated season and a Class 7A state championship — continued to prepare for the start of the season by holding its Purple-White Scrimmage in Bulldog Gymnasium.

Guards Kikko Haydar and Taylor Cochran showed they still work well together, nearly leading the Purple team back from a 24-point deficit in a 65-63 loss. Nobel hustled in the paint and got to the foul line before getting injured.

And the Bulldogs got production from several backups, but not enough for Gebhart’s liking.

“We’ve got to execute better. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Gebhart said. “We’ve got some guys that really don’t know what to do in certain situations, and we got to do a better job of coaching and making sure that guys understand what they’re supposed to do and play with effort and compete.”

Cochran led all scorers with 20 points, and Haydar — who played for the White team until he switched jerseys to help the Purple team make a comeback — added 15 points in the scrimmage.

Nobel followed up his shots, drew fouls and scored 10 points before he appeared to have his nose broken when he was hit by a teammate’s elbow while battling for a loose ball with 54.6 seconds remaining in a quarter.

The senior immediately fell to the floor, cupped a hand over his nose to catch any blood and spent the remainder of the scrimmage on the bench with an ice pack to his nose.

Gebhart said he’s not sure if Nobel suffered a broken nose. “He’s going to go get that checked out right now,” Gebhart said.

With the White team leading 59-35, Gebhart switched Haydar to the Purple team. The senior point guard quickly showed how much of a difference he can make as he ran the fast break, got the ball to Cochran and sparked a 19-1 run that cut White’s lead to 60-54 with 2 minutes, 33 seconds remaining.

But he came up short.

“We need to execute better. One thing that made me upset was we didn’t get that rebound on the free throw at the end of the game,” Haydar said. “That’s some stuff that’s going to get us beat. We didn’t come back all the way.”

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