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| Photos Courtesy Of Cooper Digital Photos Click On Their Business Card To Go To Their Website |
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| Mustangs Outgamed By Newport 51-50 As Rally From 11 Point Halftime Deficit Comes Up Short |
| Coaching high school basketball is a series of incredible highs, depressing lows, and somewhere in the middle is a lot of time spent searching for answers. This "New Era" Mustangs team has proven over and again that they can win the "big one," beating Christian County to capture the Ashland Invitational Tournament and going into Scott and bringing home the 37th District Top Seed. But in the last few ballgames we seem to have slipped into the "searching for answers" category. The Mustangs have dropped their last four games and while nobody will fault them for the near-misses against Bardstown and Highlands, or maybe even the Tuesday after the "A" State loss to Mason County, even the team themselves have to be scratching their collective heads after dropping a disappointing one-point loss at Newport 51-50 on Tuesday night. |
| Twenty minutes after our JVs dismantled the JV Wildcats, the varsity game appeared to be more of the same as our varsity ran out to a quick 6-0 lead, which quickly became a 10-3 bulge, and the Mustangs appeared well on their way to getting off of the 15 win mark and putting an end to the three-game skid that they entered Tuesday night's game on. But basketball games are thirty-two minutes long and the Newport Wildcats are an athletic bunch capable of winning the big one themselves on occasion, as evidenced by their beating NCC earlier in the campaign. The Mustangs seven point advantage would be short lived as the Wildcats embarked on a 7-0 run that tied the game at ten just into the second period. Brossart responded by poking a head back in front at 12-10 with 5:58 to play in the half, but the Cats knotted it back up at 12-12 before going on a 15-4 run resulting in an eleven point Mustang deficit at 27-16 going to the locker-room at halftime. We emerged properly focused to start the third period that would serve as a catch-up quarter, with the Mustangs narrowing the Cats advantage to three at 31-28, outscoring them 12-4, and in the enviable position of having Big Mo in a Green Uniform with the Wildcats hearing hoofbeats to start the final stanza. When the Mustangs took the lead at 32-31 with |
| 6:35 to go in the game it appeared that the Cats had taken their best shot and that the Mustangs would continue on to head back to Alexandria unscathed in this NKAC Division II contest. But sometimes stories don't go exactly according to script and it appears that the Mustangs exhausted all of thier resources in catching the Cats, while the home team still had some gas left in the tank. After three lead changes the Cats drew back off to a 39-35 lead at the 4:09 mark, and built that to a 46-40 lead 1:37 out. The Mustangs responded by cutting the Cats lead to a point at 47-46 on a Josh Kidney basket in traffic, and again to 49-48 after two Wildcat free-throws and a basket by Troy Cooper with :20.5 to go. Our Stangs had a chance to grab the lead with :13.4 but missed consecutive free-throws and two freebies by James Glenn on the other end slammed the door on |
| the Mustangs come-from-behind chances when the Mustangs were forced to foul with 8.9 left in the game sending the Mustangs who played without the services of Nathan Mutsch back to Alexandria on a four-game skid and seeking answers. An impending Thursday night encounter with the NCC Thoroughbreds on the Carothers Road Hill may be just what the doctor ordered to get this team out of their late-season funk and back to their winning ways. It won't come easy however, as the Breds knocked off 9th Region Top-Dawgs, Holmes while the Mustangs were doing battle on the other side of town. Box Score: Kidney 5-0-2/3-12, Seiter 2-0-0/0-4, Lubbers 5-0-2/2-12, Uebel 3-0-1/2-7, Cooper 6-0-3/7-15 Total Mustangs: 21-0- 8/14 -50 15-9 1-3 Total Newport: 11-6-11/13 -51 |
| JVs Put On Execution Clinic Topple Newport 49-33 Improve To 3-1 In NKAC |
| The JVs continue to play their best ball of the season, routing the Newport JVs 49-33 in a game that wasn't that close. The impressive thing about the JVs beating Newport wasn't that they won - it was how they won, putting on an exhibition of offensive execution allowing them to put the game away early, blowing out to an 18-5 lead after a period and 23-8 by intermission. A 15-10 third quarter by the Stangs erased any thoughts of a comeback by the home team as the Mustangs led 38-18 when Kyle Kramer and Matt Lloyd adjourned to the locker-room to prepare for the varsity encounter. Newport gained a slight 15-11 advantage in the final period, closing the gap to 49-33 as the Mustang JVs improve to 3-1 in the NKAC Conference Race and 15-6 overall. The Mustangs put three scorers in double figures, led by Greg Stortz with 11 points, and followed closely by Ben Ridder and Matthew Hansman with 10 apiece. Josh Tolson led the Wildcats with 16 points, including four from beyond the arc. Box Score: Lloyd 1-0-0/0-2, Rebholz 1-1-0/2.5, Niemeyer 0-0-2/2-2, Ridder 5-0-0/0-10, Kramer 1-1-2/2-7, Hertzenberg 0-0-2/2-2, Hansman 4-0-2/4-10, Stortz 5-0-1/3-11 Totals Mustangs: 17-2-9/15-49 15-6 3-1 Totals Wildcats: 10-4- 1/2-33 |
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