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| Click On The Radio At Right To Listen To The Varsity Game Broadcast |
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| 'Stangs Felled By 3-8 Pendlton County 61-58 Fail To Exercise Old Demons Streaks Continue For Wildcats Thursday, Janaury 18, 2007 |
| Our Brossart Mustangs traveled to Falmouth on Thursday night confident of destroying some old skeletons that lived in our closet. The Mustangs had not defeated the Wildcats in our last five attempts, and the 3-8 Cats, riddled by graduation, who had dropped their last five consecutive regular season games this year, seemed vulnerable to having their 25 game, three year home game win string snapped. We learned two tough lessons in failing to accomplish those goals. The first is that we bring out the best in the Pendleton County Wildcats, whoever they are, and secondly to the Wildcats, who were playing only their second game this year in Falmouth, that there is no place like home. First year head coach Chad Sims reached into his bag of tricks and chose to challenge the Brossart Mustangs shooters with a zone to shoot over, the same zone that we have seen often earlier this season and shredded, most notably in a 70-48 win over Harrison County. The team that was tabbed by the Lexington Herald-Leader some years ago after a similar shooting performance in the All "A" State Tournament against the Owen County Rebels as the "Team That Couldn't Shoot Straight," couldn't shoot straight again on this Thursday night in Falmouth. The Mustangs could manage only 9 of 39 (unofficially) from beyond the arc, and 21 of 72 overall in this game against the Wildcats. Senior Kane Belcher did an excellent job of nuetralizing the efforts of Troy Cooper, limiting our big man to a pair of free-throws in the first half. Cooper would eventually free up for 14 points on the night, ten of which came in a furious fourth quarter rally that came up three-points short. The Mustangs, who never led in this contest, fell behind early by as much as 12-5 in the first period before ending the quarter trailing 12-8. Brossart cut the Cats lead to 18-16 with 2:45 remaining in the half, but couldn't catch them as the PC crew spurted off to a 25-20 halftime lead. In the oh-so-important first three minutes of the second half the Wildcats did irrepairable damage, going on an 11-0 run out of the locker room to make it a 36-20 game and a minute later extended their lead to 17 points, their longest of the night at 39-22. Fresh off of a "rise from the ashes" win over Scott just two nights previous, the Mustangs attempted to perform a similar feat in this game, rallying from behind to make it a 51-47 Pendleton County advantage with 4:33 to play in the game. The Mustangs fans breathed a sigh of relief, as it appeared that everything would work out for our heroes from there, but the Cats proved their resiliance, pushing back to a seven point lead at 54-47 before leaving themselves vulnerable by missing some key free throws in the waning seconds of the game. As the final seconds of the game ticked off and the Mustangs trailing by the final 61-58 margain, Bryan Niemeyer found himself the recipient of an intercepted Pendleton County inbounds pass, and with less than a second on the clock heaved a half-court prayer that would have sent the game to overtime. Although Bryan and his friends practice this shot routinely before and after practice on a near-daily basis, the shot which appeared early to be right-on, veered slightly off to the right, allowing the Cats to increase their personal win streak against the Mustangs to now six straight, and their consecutive home game win streak to 26, spanning the last three seasons. Congratulations to Coach Chad Sims and his Cats on a gutty effort and well-deserved victory. Our Mustangs will now have to re-group and forge onward into next week's 10th Region All "A" Tournament coming off of this stinging loss to the Pendleton County Wildcats. It appears that we will engage in the regional "A" wars without the services of Nathan Mutsch whose presence Thursday night was missed in spades. Hopefully, a slice of humble pie will be just what the doctor ordered to refocus this team's resolve as we face the winner of the Paris/Silver Grove game on Wednesday night at home in the opening round of this year's All "A" State Title quest. Rather now than then. BOX SCORE: Kidney 3-2-0/0-12, Patterson 0-1-0/0-3, Rebholz 0-1-0/0-3, Niemeyer 2-1-1/1-8, Kramer 0-2-0/0-6, Uebel 3-2-0.0-12, Cooper 4-0-6/9-14 Totals Mustangs: 12-9- 7/12-58 14-3 3-0 Total Wildcats: 20-2-15/28-61 4-8 |
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| The Mustangs freshmen unleashed a 21-6 third period flurry on the homestanding Wildcats to break open a close game and post a 48-39 victory in the opener of the tripleheader. Ten Mustangs were paced in the scoring column by Jordan Armstrong, Nick Hanneken, and Jacob Rieger with 8 points apiece. BOX SCORE: Armstrong 2-1-1/3-8, Cummins 2-0-1/1-5, Martin 1-0-1/2-3, Popovich 0-0-2/2-2, Morscher 0-2-1/2-7, Batsche 2-0-0/1-4, Hanneken 1-2-0/0-8, Crowley 0-0-0/1-0, Rieger 3-0-2/4-8, Fessler 1-0-0/0-2, Kroger 0-0-1/2-1 Total Mustangs: 12-5- 9/18-48 13-7 Total Wildcats 8-5-10/17-39 The JVs appeared well on their way to victory, leading 33-28 after three quarters of play, but let a late game lead slip away, as the offense stalled out, putting only six points on the board in the fourth quarter and allowing the Cats to rally for the 42-39 win. The Mustang JVs were led by the Freshman Jacob Rieger with 9 points. Doug Lambert led the Cats with 17. BOX SCORE: Armstrong 1-0-0/0-2, Patterson 1-0-0/0-2, Webb 3-0-0/0-6, Kremer 2-0-0/0-4, Ridder 3-0-1/4-7, TWoeste 1-0-0/0-2, Rieger 3-0-3/4-9, Wolfer 1-0-0/0-2, Barth 0-0-1/2-1, Weyman 2-0-0/0-4 Total Mustangs: 17-0-5/10-39 Total Wildcats: 15-1-9/19-42 |
| Mustang Freshmen Prevail 48-39 JVs Succumb Late - 42-39 |
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