Dylan Hastings scored 1,000th point in Friday's home win over the Indians by Bud Hart The Solanco boys saw their hopes for post season action slip away when the Ephrata Mountaineers handed them a 55-42 loss at Ephrata on Tuesday, January 31. Tied at the half at 24-all, the Mounts held the Mules to 18 points in the second half while pumping in 31. “We just were not able to get enough offensive production to win the game,” wrote head coach Scott Long. “Despite that fact Mike Worthington had a tremendous first half, scoring eight points and going five of six from the line.” While the visiting Mules had seven players score, only one hit double digits. Robbie McHugh led the team with 10 points followed by Dylan Hastings (9), Mike Worthington (8), Braden Redcay (6), Aaron Constein (4), Dan Siegrist (3) and Alec Munro (2). Although the Mules shot a respectable 13 for 16 (81.2 percent) from the charity stripe, they didn’t defend to the coach’s liking. “Defensively we did not win the battles on the perimeter,” added Coach Long. “I don’t care what level of basketball we are talking about, you just cannot win games against good competition if you cannot stay in front of people and we didn’t do that on Tuesday night.”
On Friday night, February 3, a large home crowd witnessed a rejuvenated Mule squad trample the helpless Donegal Indians with a 64-41 victory for the Solanco team. In addition to the huge win, Hastings had them on their feet applauding after hitting the front end of a one-and-one at the 4:59 mark of the second quarter to give him his 1,000th high school point. “This was a great milestone for Dylan and our program,” said Long. “Dylan became the seventh boys’ basketball player in school history to break the 1,000 point mark.” The others are Fred Wert (1961), Todd Wenger (1984), Mark Tacelosky (1992), Johnny Miller (1994), Chad Shirk (1998) and Zac Bauermaster (2005). Donegal took a 2-0 lead two and half minutes into the game, but from there the Mules galloped on a 10-0 run and the Indians failed to saddle them. The run featured a McHugh steal and an in your face dunk to the loud cheer of Mule supporters. It was the only points the senior forward scored. “They say a dunk is only worth two points but anyone who watches basketball knows that it tends to bring a ton of energy and momentum and it did just that for us,” said Coach Long. A season high was also established when the Mules connected on 11 shots from the three-point line with Colin Kilgore leading the way with four. In addition to Hastings accomplishment and McHugh’s crowd pleaser, Coach Long had praise for his 5’-10” senior guard. “Colin was having an incredible game,” said Long. “I think this was the best game I’ve ever seen him play.” Kilgore connected on four of five attempts from outside the arc. Aaron Constein and Mike Worthington swished two triples and Hastings, Jon Rush and Jake Zook each added one. Eight of those triples occurred in the first half with the Mules owning a 37-20 lead at the break. Solanco came back in the second half and went on a 6-0 run. It was 49-33 at the end of the third quarter and the frustrated Indians left the barnyard humbled suffering a 23 point loss. Hastings took game honors with 18 points. The senior forward was followed by Kilgore (14), Const5ein (11), Worthington (8), Rush (4), Zook (3), McHugh (2), Dan Siegrist (2) and Braden Redcay (2). Of Constein Long added, “Aaron continued his recent surge with 11 points, including two three-pointers.” The Mules travel to New Holland on Tuesday, February 7, to close out the regular season facing the Spartans of Garden Spot. “We’re currently 11-10 on the year,” said the coach. “It’s highly unlikely we make the cut for the District playoffs. We are currently ranked 20th and only the top 16 get in.” Comments are closed.
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