It was a somewhat frustrating week for the Solanco boys basketball team. The Mules suffered two losses including a gut-wrenching defeat to Conestoga Valley last Thursday night. "It was an unfortunate situation," coach Scott Long said. "We were up all game and they made a run at the end." The Mules' Aaron Constein hit a three-pointer to put his team up by a point with 50 seconds remaining. After Conestoga Valley missed a shot, Solanco got the rebound and was fouled. The Mules missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Buckskins called a timeout with 10.1 seconds left.
"We'd only shown them man-to-man [defense] to that point so we came out in a zone," said Long. "We thought they'd have a play designed against a man-to-man and maybe we'd throw them off." That part of the plan worked perfect. CV was confused and could only manage a 20-foot desperation shot. But, Solanco was whistled for a foul and CV made two free throws to win the game. "The unfortunate thing is that [foul] call probably shouldn't have been made," said Long. "In reality, we put ourselves in position where a call like that made a difference in the game. The message to our players was it's not the official's fault. We played well but made a couple of mistakes that caught up to us." Luis Alvarez led Solanco with 12 points. Aaron Constein, Mike Figueroa, Desmond Kreider, and Robbie McHugh each added eight. Dylan Hastings supplied seven. Luis and Mike both had big games," said Long. "[CV] put their tallest guy on Dylan so we put Dylan on the perimeter and took turns posting up one of their guards with Luis and Mike." On Tuesday, January 19, Solanco lost 62-57 to Elizabethtown. "We beat them by 10 at their place," said Long. "We feel like we're the better team but they outplayed us. Coming off the win over McCaskey, we did not play with the same urgency. It's almost like there was a sense of satisfaction." Joey Lonardi poured in 37 points for the Bears. "We couldn't get the stops we needed," said Long. For Solanco, Figueroa had 13 points and Kreider and Alvarez both provided 11. The following day, the Mules "had maybe the most intense practice of the season", Long said. "The kids responded well," he added. CV had beaten us by 20 at our place and we went up there and felt like we were the better team so that's encouraging. It shows improvement and that's ultimately what we're looking for." Long says the Mules (8-11) have to win their remaining three games to have a shot at a district playoff berth. Solanco travels to Lebanon Tuesday, hosts Garden Spot Thursday, and heads to Ephrata February 2. Comments are closed.
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