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| WE WIN!!! Mustangs Win 51st Annual A.I.T. Beat Christian County Colonels 65-56 Troy Cooper Named MVP Brad Seiter and Josh Kidney - All-Tournament |
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| THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE FRIDAY MORNING EDITON OF THE ASHLAND DAILY-INDEPENDENT By Grant Traylor ASHLAND: Bishop Brossart coach Mike Code did what any coach would do if he expected his trio of big guys to have to guard the perimeter, run on the break and sprint for 32 minutes. He wore them ragged during a morning workout. “We had a rather rough walk-through (Thursday) morning,” Code said. “It was more of a practice than a walk-through because we were not being commanding in the post.” The method of Code's madness paid dividends with his Mustangs punishing Christian County 65-56 to win the championship of the Ashland Invitational Tournament Thursday. Troy Cooper, one of the big guys that Code exhausted, scored 28 points and grabbed five rebounds in the championship to take tournament MVP honors. “The big guys had to work on keeping their arms up and finishing through contact,” Cooper said. In the contest, Cooper converted four baskets in which he was fouled with several coming in transition. Cooper and fellow big man Nathan Mutsch controlled play throughout the contest, combining for 38 points and 12 of the Mustangs 21 rebounds. The duo also went to the foul line 26 times in the contest. “Nathan was so active early on that it gave people confidence,” Code said. “Then Troy got out in the second half and our guards did a great job finding him.” Point guard Brad Seiter only attempted one field goal in the contest, but Code said he ran the offense to perfection against the quick pressure. The result was several open looks for the frontcourt duo and shooting guard Josh Kidney, who finished with 12 points. The Mustang defense switched from its constant half-court defense to a tight matchup zone that forced the Colonels into several outside shots. “In the first two games, we were picking up at half court, but tonight we picked up at the three-point line because they are so quick from 1 to 5,” Code said. The move resulted in Cooper and Mutsch being out top defensively on several occasions putting a hand in the face of shooters. Christian County finished the contest 40 percent from the field. Jamaizz Baker scored 16 points while Montreal Lane came off the bench to add 12 points for Christian County, who was without head coach Kerry Stovall due to a stomach virus. |
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| The Brossart Mustangs made their first trip to the Ashland Invitational Tournament a winning one, defeating Russell (the top-ranked team in the 16th Region) 59-45 on Tuesday, dispatching West Carter (the team that knocked off the tournament favorite Bryan Station) 48-42 on Wednesday, and then taking out Christian County (earlier 68-44 winners over Simon Kenton) 65-56 in the championship game. This A.I.T. Championship represented a total team effort as each of the Mustangs who played in the three game series each played a signifigant role in our bringing home the heavy |
| hardware to the Avenue of Champions. Josh Kidney, who may have been the most pleasant surprise of the tournament scoring 30 points in the three games played, Brad Seiter who led the team with authority and poise while connecting on 22 of 30 free throws, and Troy Cooper, from |
| whom we've come to expect such things, used his substantial girth and fleetness of foot to score double figures in all three games for a total of 49 points, including 28 in the championship game, were all named to the All-Tournament team, with Coop being named the tournament's MVP. The Mustangs received sizable contributions from Jimmy Uebel, our embattled warrior, who fought sickness and injury to work his defensive magic, making many good things happen and the players around him the beneficiaries of his passing talents in all three games, putting up 11 points in the Russell game before falling ill on Wednesday. Kyle Lubbers |
| has become a seasoned pro at this game and as suspected has emerged as a major contributing factor to the success of this team. Lubbs put up 19 points in the three-day event and may have been the "star of the game" in our win over West Carter. Nathan Mutsch stepped up big in the title match after struggling to finish in the first two contests, dominated on the boards, and is just now getting back to 100% after recoving from a concussion which sidelined him for over a week. Adam Franzen triggered the third period rally in the championship game which resulted in a 20 point quarter and put the Mustangs on top to stay by hitting two huge field-goals and Kyle Kramer filled in admirably when called upon to spell his teammates who needed a breather or had gotten in foul trouble. This is the kind of team effort that we had the confidence that this group could deliver and it has certainly been rewarded paying dividends in the form of a 7-2 record and a major tournament title to boot. Troy Cooper joins names such as Antwain Barbour, Richie Farmer, and Darrell Griffith who have been the leading scorer in AIT championship games. Here is the composite box score for the three game A.I.T.: Kidney 10-1-7/12-30, Seiter 2-2-22/30-32, Franzen 2-0-4/6-8, Lubbers 7-0-5/8-19, Uebel 5-2-2/10-18, Mutsch 5-0- 6/17-16, Cooper 13-0-23/36-49 Total Mustangs: 44- 5-69/119 -172 7-2 1-1 Total Opponents: 44-11- 22/44 -143 |
| In the championship game itself, which reminded me a lot of Hoosiers where the tiny middle-class suburbanite Catholic school boys would face the big strong, quick, big city guys from Hopkinsville, the Mustangs would face Christian County who has made 12 Sweet Sixteen State Tournament appearances and played in the championship game on two occasions. The Mustangs have been to the "big show" once. Our Mustangs came ready to play and seemingly caught the Colonels off-guard with our intensive half-court defense and effective press-break which allowed us to build a nine point lead at 14-5 early on in the first period. As the Colonels began to score they were able to more-readily get into their press and capitalized on Mustang turnovers to go on a 7-0 run of their own, cutting our advantage to 14-12 at the half. A quick Colonel bucket to start the second period knotted the score at 14 and by the 3:48 mark of the second stanza the Mustangs had fallen behind 18-24 and it looked like Christian County had weathered the Mustang threat and was about to run away and hide by halftime. With their backs to the wall the Stangs regrouped and stemmed the tide, as Josh Kidney and Troy Cooper would combine for 12 of the Mustangs 14 second period points and would cut the Christian County lead to 28-29 at halftime. The adjustments that the Mustang coaching staff made at halftime were right on the money and following a Troy Cooper old-fashioned 3point play, Adam Franzen would lead the fast-break and score twice to start the second half and would score over larger defenders (picture) to gain the lead back for the Mustangs. The third period saw the game tied at 36 and 41 before the Mustangs pulled away to lead 48-42 going into the fourth quarter. The Colonels would make one more run to start the fourth period, cutting the Brossart advantage to 48-46 before our amazing, new era Mustangs drew off to win the oldest continuous ongoing tournament in the state 65-56. When the dust had settled Troy Cooper had scored 28 points to lead the Mustangs and Josh Kidney and Nathan Mutsch would both contribute double figures with 12 and 10 point performances respectively. Cooper was named tournament MVP and Kidney and Brad Seiter were placed on the All-Tournament team. Box Score: Kidney 4-1-1/2-12, Seiter 0-0-5/9-5, Franzen 2-0-0/0-4, Lubbers 1-0-1/2-3, Uebel 1-0-1/4-3, Mutsch 3-0-4/7-10, Cooper 8-0-12/19-28 Totals Mustangs: 19-1-24/43-65 7-2 1-1 Totals Colonels: 17-5- 7/14-56 |
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| Click On The Radio At Right To Listen To The Broadcast Replay of the Championship Game of the AIT |
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| Photos Courtesy Of Cooper Digital Photos Click On Their Business Card To Go To Their Website |
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