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| Mustangs Advance To "A" State Semi-Finals With 60-50 Win Over Six Time All A State Champion University Heights |
| At the Thursday morning shootaround at Transylvania University Mustang Junior Kevin Smith threw down some monster dunks. When asked about how effortlessly they were going down Kevin confided that he was going to jam one if the opportunity arose against Somerset later that night - the opportunity never arose. It did arise early in the 2nd quarter against University Heights however, and Kevin true to his word added his name to the list of Mustangs who have accomplished the dunk feat. Now there are three, Smith, Derrick Rhoden and Evan McDole. Smitty's jam, along with a key Steve McCarthy 3-point goal, five off-the-bench points by Derrick Rhoden, and intensive Mustangs defensive pressure spearheaded a 20 point scoring barrage that set the Mustangs up to defeat University Heights, a team which had won 9 of their last 10, and have cut the nets down in this storied tournament a total of six times with the most recent being in 2002. There will be no net cutting this year for the Blazers as they will be heading back to HopTown in the morning after falling the Mustangs 60-50 in the quarterfinals round. Brossart found themselves trailing the Blazers 11-10 at the end of the first quarter which saw Super-soph Joshua Mack score 9 of their 11 point total output. The Mustangs rallied in the second quarter as described previously to take a 30-19 lead to the lockeroom at halftime. A Jason Cooper 3-Ball to open the 3rd period appeared to be picking up the Mustangs where they left off, but it would only be complimented by a Rhoden basket midway through the period and a Rob Doyle stickiback just ahead of the buzzer as the Mustangs could muster only seven points in the third stanza. The good news was that UHA hit for a point less, as the Mustangs extended their lead to 37-25 with eight minutes to play. University Heights showed why they are as highly thought of as they are in the fourth quarter when they exploded for 25 points, outscoring the Mustangs 25-23 in the final period. When the final horn had sounded the Mustangs had won their seventeenth game of the season against a trio of losses and extended their win streak to 9. Derrick Rhoden led all Mustangs scorers with 12 points, Jason Cooper poured in 11, Kevin Smith tacked on 9, Evan McDole had 8, Steve McCarthy contributed 7, Rob Doyle 5, while Brett Reilly and Ryan Anderson rounded out the Mustangs with 4 apiece. McDole was named the MVP for the second consecutive day and the third consecutive time stretching back over the last twelve months. The Mustangs will now take on NCC in the Semi-Finals on Saturday at 4:30pm. The game will be broadcast live via the homepage of this site and will air at 4:15pm. |