The Mustangs beat a top 10 nationally ranked opponent for the first time in a long time last night as the Stangs lead wire to wire to topple the #9 Mesa State Mavericks. The loss was the Mavs first in conference play and second overall against 20 wins. We talked in the tip off show about how the Mavericks were a good team; emphasis on team. Despite the fact that Dominguez scored 21 a game his teammates were important and played specific roles on the team and did so very well.
But the Mustangs showed last night how much of a team they were as well. This victory was brought about by everyone on the team. TJ paced the Mustangs in scoring with 33 and recorded 12 rebounds while Carter, Crevelone and Macintosh added 12 a piece. But it was the defense and rebounding that was a key for the team.
The Mustangs held the Mavs to just 10 offense rebounds throughout the game and outrebounded the Mavs overall. The Mustangs got at least 14 pts off of offensive rebounds themselves. Defensively the Mustangs dominated Dominguez for most of the game; Jeron was assigned the task of guarding him and Dominguez had only 4 pts in the first half. To be sure, Jeron got help from the rest of the team. The Stangs were great but they were better than they have been, frustrating the Mavs to the point that it was obvious to the fans.
What was also key was that we knew the Mavs would make a run in the second half, trailing by 16 at the break; we also feared the Stangs would let them make a run. And it happened but what changed was the reaction of the Mustangs. At least 2 times the Mavs cut the lead to 4 and both times the Mustangs pulled themselves out of the doldrums and held of the top ranked RMAC team. In the past when the Stangs started standing around and settling for a one pass and long shot offense it was hard for them to recover the intensity. Last night they did that and last night the Stangs grew up just a little more as a team. Now the Stangs control their destiny. They have Pueblo and Highlands at home this week; if they Stangs get the sweep over the 2 teams just ahead of them in the standings then one win on the road and we should be in the playoffs. It won’t be easy but if this team continues to grow as a team, it is very realistic.
The Mustangs had a chance to battle for 2nd place in the west hosting Ft. Lewis. The Stangs came out and played what may have been their best half of basketball all season. Defense was solid, offense was very good and the Stangs lead by 15 at the break. Ft. Lewis is a good, experienced team and maybe the Mustangs not only expected a run from the Hawks but maybe it worried them too. You could see the Mustangs seemed to be tentative and waiting; they stopped moving without the ball on offense and then didn’t rotate the help on the other end.
Despite playing poorly, the Mustangs shot only 29% in the 2nd half after shooting 50% in the first; the Stangs lead down to the end and had a chance to win. Instead it was a 2 OT game. Ft. Lewis jumped out to a 7 point lead in stanza #1 but the Stangs answered with their own run. In the 2nd OT the Mustangs gave up 5 quick points then answered pulling to within 1 but just couldn’t get over the hump. Ft. Lewis had the experience to withstand the Mustangs: we are young and will learn from the game; IF this group of guys continues to work hard like they have been, with time the Mustangs will have the mental toughness that Ft. Lewis has but we are much more talented team and will be a much better TEAM than Ft. Lewis.
It’s a tough loss and the Mustangs will need to come out firing on all cylinders Saturday with Adams State coming to town. Adams State and WNMU have something of a rivalry building and the Grizzlies would love to beat the Mustangs. It would be a bright spot in a dismal season. If the Mustangs put together 2 halves like the first half last night; it will be a blow out. But it just doesn’t happen; you have to focus and pay attention to the little things; run the offense; move without the ball; protect the basket on defense and box out. Do that and it’s a double digit win for the Stangs.
That is what T.J. told Coach Coleman earlier this week and last night he proved how prophetic he was and how right he was. T.J. hit a shot with about a second left in the game that will be legendary. The Mustangs did not play well but continued to hang around even after falling down by 10 late in the 2nd half. But the Mustangs seemed to wake up and pulled back to within 2 points. They could not close the gap or take the lead in the final minutes despite getting 3 defensive stops against Chadron. Then the Mustangs were down to the last play. Coach called a time out and designed a play to tie the game and get it into OT. But Chadron overplayed and JW could not find T.J. inside; instead T.J. popped out on the right wing, almost out of bounds in front of the Mustang bench when JW got him the ball; a Chadron Eagle defender flying towards him, T.J. let it fly. The ball found NOTHING BUT THE BOTTOM OF THE NET!!!! With .4 left on the clock the Mustangs had retaken the lead for the first time in the 2nd half. And that is when it counts.
Give the Stangs credit. Stefan Mirabal’s outside shot wasn’t back to his normal play so he found a way to score 21 by driving and getting to the basket. Eli Crevelone started making outside shots, a couple of 3’s and a stellar turn around jumper off the board against tough defense helped spark and sustain the run at the end. Jaron again contributed with tough defense, rebounding and great ball handling. JW ran the game well against a stifling Eagle defense limiting turnovers that could have been costly.
I told Chad before the game that I expected him to get a dunk and he came up with a spectacular jam off of a lob. He contributed not only with points but good defense and rebounding. Chuck also came up big, he hit a 3 in the first half that kept the Mustangs in the game and his defense inside has improved; he got a couple of blocks that slowed down the inside game of Chadron. It was truly a team effort. No one stood out as having a great game, but everyone contributed in some way that helped the Mustangs get a win and remain perfect at home. It’s hard to remember sometimes how young this team is. I’ve said it several times already, they aren’t perfect and at times they aren’t pretty but they are exciting and last night just added another chapter to the saga.
The Mighty Stangs got the first win of the 4 game home stand last night, topping UNK 74-66 on Drag’s Court. I have to say it was one of the oddest feelings after a win that I’ve ever felt and Coach said it was weird. The Stangs played solid defense limiting 6′ 10″ Josiah Parker, the Lopers’ leading scorer, to just 6 points. The Stangs also had 15 offensive rebounds to the Lopers’ 13, something which never happens. But give credit to Chad Carter, Chuck Kempf and the rest of the Stangs for their solid defensive effort. Stefan, Eli, Lucio, TJ, Justin all had a hand in forcing UNK to shoot 31% from the field in the 2nd half and relegating Parker to the bench for the last 7-8 minutes of the game.
Offensively, the Stangs built a 16 pt lead in the 2nd half after trailing most of the first half but the guys just never seemed to get on track offensively. Stefan was 1-10 in the first half but made some key lay ups in the 2nd. The Stangs leading scorer had 14 but 4 guys were in double figures and others chipped in 9, 7 & 8, so it truly was a team effort. And TJ had 2 WORLD CLASS dunks!! One of which posterized the defender and Coach called the best dunk he’d ever seen at WNMU. But as I said even after the Stangs let UNK get back to within 8 pts, they held on for the win and it just didn’t seem like a WNMU victory. It was weird but the important part is that it was a victory and you can’t win all 4 games in this home stretch if you don’t win the first. And we’ve done that. Now Chadron is up on Saturday night, let’s get 2…
The Mustangs couldn’t reel in the Roadrunners with a strong 2nd half run and the Stangs return home going 1-1 on the road and are at 3-2 in the conference. But the Stangs stay in 3rd in the conference and strongly in playoff contention as Pueblo lost also.
Now the Stangs have 4 in a row at home starting off this week with UNK & Chadron.
It seems to me that the Mustangs beat themselves as much as anything; their defense was better and they kept the 2nd chance opportunities down until late in the game. Foul trouble didn’t help. We said the 4 big guns for WNMU would all have to score but no one could get anything consistent going. But the Mustangs were clearly not afraid of a team that was bigger and more athletic and they battled down to the end.
The Mustangs wrap up this roadtrip with an afternoon tilt at Metro State College. The Stangs will tip off at 3:00 (we’ll be on the air at 2:40) against one of the perennial powerhouses in the RMAC. Metro is 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference. This will be Metro’s only game this week so they are rested but could they also be rusty? They last played January 2 against Northwest Nazarene. I wouldn’t count on it; this is a top notch program.
One thing we can count on; if the Mustangs don’t rebound well and give up 25 offensive rebounds to Metro, it will be a long trip home and the momentum from Thursday night’s win will be lost. WNMU actually averages more points per game than Metro 78/75 but gives up 18 more per game. If the Stangs want to win their defense will have to be as good as it was Thursday. The Stangs will have Chuck and Chad back after their absence or relative absence on Thursday so some of the rebounding concerns should be allayed a bit.
Looking at it statistically (I know we don’t play it on paper) Metro shoots the ball well, 49%, but they don’t have a lot of assists so it looks like they create shots on their own. Help defense will be big and Jarron will have to come up big like he did Thursday. Guarding against any overconfidence will part of Coach’s pre-game message I’m sure.
Metro will have their hands full defensively. WNMU has 4 guys averaging well into the double figures with Stefan, JW, TJ & Eli. And consider Stefan and Eli were pretty quiet on Thursday. I would imagine that Metro is better defensively than any RMAC team we’ve seen yet but I still think we may have the quickness advantage off the dribble. The penetration and finish or penetration and kick out for a solid outside shot will have to be working for the Mustangs to have a chance; that means Stefan, Eli & TJ will have to be knocking down their shots.
This will be a tough game and the Stangs would have taken a 1-1 split on this trip but now with some confidence they want to go home 2-0 and 4-1 in the conference. They won’t be satisfied with a split and you know what? That’s the attitude you want to see from a team; hate losing, expect to win and work hard to win.
The Mustangs remained in contention in the RMAC West division with a huge road win at Regis last night, 83-73. The Mustangs played good team defense and held of a motivated Ranger team in the 2nd half to get their first road win of the season and improve to 3-1 in the conference. The Mustangs trailed early even though both teams were hot but tied the game at 6-6 and then went on a 9-0 run getting 6 of those points off of turnovers forced by an aggressive Mustang defense. The Mustangs never trailed and in fact held a double digit lead most of the night.
But aggressive rebounding by Regis on the offensive boards helped Regis cut the Stang lead to 3 several times in the last 10 minutes of the game. But the Mustangs came up big and the defense was key again late. Jerron Macintosh was the key player of the game; his tough defense bothered Regis’ top scorer, Rosinksi, all night holding him to only 10 pts in the first half; even though Rosinski got 28 on the night, he never got on track. Jerron also was a monster on the boards. Officially he was credited with 7 but the coaches showed him with 11 or 12.
JW also came up big at the free throw line late in the game after going 1 of 6 in the first half. TJ also came up with some big shots especially early in the game and then a boomshakalakah dunk in the 2nd half off of a Jerron steal that returned momentum to the Mustangs. Stefan came up with a couple of key baskets as the Rangers were making their run that helped the Mustangs rebuild their lead. And don’t forget Darryl Littleton’s effort; 5 blocks 2 of which were swatted into the cheap seats and some key rebounds for the Stangs will likely earn Darryl more playing time.
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The Stangs were able to bounce back offensively scoring 93 against Fairbanks but it wasn’t enough as they gave up over a 100. And to make things worse, weather has delayed the Mustangs flight home and they are stuck in Alaska until tomorrow… at least there’s a lot to do in Alaska in the winter. Coach sent me a text about playing with the fuzzy cute polar bears. I hear if you catch a little one the bears give you a Coca-Cola. Nice.
The Stangs might want to check and see if there was Saran wrap on the baskets. It was not a good shooting night for the Mustangs who held their opponents under the 70 point barrier but we did not even score half of what we usually do. The Stangs did not get their first basket from the floor until the 9:37 mark of the first half. For you public school graduates that means we did not make a basket for 10:23 seconds of the game. It was never close. Not sure what you chalk that performance up to but just learn what you can from it and go on to the next one ready to light it up.
