One year ago the Brossart Freshmen Mustangs traveled South on I-75 and were a contender in the Dave Tramontin Lexington Catholic Invitational Freshmen Tournament. In the opening round they served notice that they were the "real deal" by sending the host Lexington Catholic Knights to the losers bracket and home to an early lunch by shocking the home team 43-30 and establishing themselves as one of the very top freshmen teams in the state. The 2003-04 Mustangs waltzed through the quarterfinal and semi-final rounds breezing past Garrard County 55-18 and Frankfort Western Hills 60-26, before facing Scott County in the finals. In that game, the Mustangs rallied from twenty back in the fourth quarter and actually took the lead inside the minute, but it was the Cardinals who had the ball last and put a nose in front 50-49 at the buzzer to claim the tournament title by a single point, tagging our Freshmen Mustangs with one of only two losses that they would sustain on the season, while hanging twenty-four balls on the locker-room wall.
Serving as the defending tournament runner-up it was no surprise when the Mustangs were pitted in the opening round with those same Scott County Cardinals and far removed from an encounter with the homestanding Knights. However, that was then and this is now as the Mustangs returned to Lexington with less weapons in their arsenal than made the trek last season and were dealt a 61-33 setback by perhaps the top freshman team in the state. Our Mustangs were gallant in the first period, hanging with the Cards 13-9, before yeielding to the relentless pressure of the major-leaguers in the opening game.
Adam Clark proved his mettle against the big-school Cardinals leading the Mustangs with 10 points in the event and Greg Stortz added 7 despite playing with a broken nose and wearing a protective face-guard.
In the consolation bracket game the Mustangs took on the Corbin Redhounds and found the competition more to their liking. Our guys led 12-7 after a period and 19-15 at the half, widening their lead out to 34-21 after the third period before Corbin's 6'5" Crawford took over the game, scoring fourteen points in the final period, leading his team to a one-point win at the wire 39-38, the only lead they enjoy for four seconds out of the entire twenty-four minute contest, but they were the four seconds that counted and the Mustangs were deprived the LexCath Tourney victory.
In the contest, again it was Adam Clark who paved the way for the Stangs with 12 ponts, followed by Zach Boesch with 6, and Ryan Neltner and Greg Stortz with 5 each. The Mustangs will seek salvation against the Pendleton County Wildcats in Falmouth on Tuesday.
Scott County Game Boxscore: Ridder 1-0-1/2-3, Ruberg 0-1-2/3-5, Neltner 0-0-0/1-0, Hertzenberg 0-0-0/1-0,
Boesch 2-0-1/3-5, Clark 4-0-2/3-10, Beckerich 0-0-0/3-0, Bleha 0-0-2/2-2, Stortz 2-0-3/3-7
Totals: 9-12-12/22-33
Corbin Game Boxscore: Ridder 2-0-0/0-4, Neltner 2-0-1/2-5, Boesch 3-0-0/1-6, Clark 4-0-4/4-12,
Beckerich 1-0-0/0-2, Bleha 2-0-0/0-4, Stortz 2-0-1/2-5
Totals: 16-0-6/9-38 |
