Solanco's boys basketball team won its only game last week. The Mules posted a 63-60 overtime victory over visiting Garden Spot Thursday. "It was quite a game," Solanco coach Scott Long said. "They had beaten us by two in overtime in the first meeting. I think the teams are evenly matched. They have good guard play and nice size. It's very comparable. I think we're a little better defensively." That did not show itself early. Garden Spot made five three-pointers in the first quarter. "We made a couple of adjustments and went with a smaller lineup and put Colin Kilgore in so we could match up with their shooters."
Trailing by 10 early, Desmond Kreider hit a pair of three-pointers to keep the Mules in the game. "We took their big blow and we’re still right there with them," Long said. Solanco (9-11) ratcheted up the defensive intensity in the fourth quarter. "We really locked down defensively," said Long. The Mules led by between two and four points for most of the quarter and had a three-point edge with 10 seconds remaining in regulation. Following a timeout, Garden Spot brought their best shooter off a double screen, but Kilgore was able to deflect the ball out of bounds with six seconds to go. Once again, Solanco's defense was stout, but the Spartans got a huge break. With none of their top shooters open, Garden Spot's big man took a shot. The Mules' Dylan Hastings got a hand on the shot but it banked in to force overtime. "All I could do was try to laugh a little," said Long. "The cool thing is how the team responded. Our message to them was, 'We've been in this situation before and you're prepared for it'." Hastings scored on a strong post move to start the extra session. Solanco got a stop to extend the lead to four and kept the lead the rest of the way. As with the end of regulation, Garden Spot had the ball with a chance to tie the game with a three-pointer but could not get a shot off. "I was happy with our confidence going into overtime," said Long. Hastings had a team-high 20 points. Kreider finished with 16. Mike Figueroa scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, going 7 of 9 from the free throw line. Long said Kilgore and Taylor Dombach came up big on the defensive end. "It was a very entertaining game in a fun atmosphere," said Long. "It was a good win for us." Comments are closed.
|
Archives
August 2023
Categories
All
|