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.
The Stangs will take on University of Alaska Anchorage this Saturday. The Seawolves are 5-2 with their losses coming against D1 opponents; Houston and Washington State. We do have a common opponent in Hawaii Pacific; they beat HPU 82-66. We should have beat them. this will be a long trip and a difficult trip for the Mustangs; but they are on a high with 2 wins in a row and we know that young teams are more susceptible to emotion so maybe it will help them.
UAA is a strong shooting team 45% from the floor (41% 3 pt) but they only score 71 a game on average. They do only give up 63 a game. If the Stangs can keep UAA at their average we can get hot and have a chance. Watch out for Malcolm Campbell; 6′ 9″ 265 lbs averaging about 16 a game. We could hang 2 of our players off of him and he’d probably not even notice. Maybe thinking a bit of a zone? Or maybe up tempo and tire him out. Or JW, TJ and Chad driving on him and getting him in foul trouble.
I wonder if Ed Johnson has any eligibility left?
I may not speak again for a few days (to some that’s a good thing) After the most complete game and a solid victory on Thursday against RMAC foe Colorado School of Mines, the young Mustangs were poised for either another victory or a big let down against Colorado Christian University. CCU was coming in with only 1 win but as we know every team gets up for the Mustangs and the Cougars were no exception. They dominated most of the game building a 17 pt lead. The Mustangs just couldn’t shoot the ball missing 10 of 15 3-point attempts in the first half. The Stangs were within 6 a the break and then things got ugly. The Cougars built the lead and while the Mustangs tried they couldn’t get closer than 9 pts. With 9 minutes left the Stangs were down by 15. Chad was on the bench with 4 fouls. Stefan couldn’t buy a bucket. JW couldn’t drive the lane. Tony was making some shots but they kept him from getting the ball.
Then the light switch went on Coach put the team in a full court press and it got off to a slow start but you could see it was bothering the Cougars. And oh did it work. Turn over after turn over; defensive stop after defensive stop and the Mustangs slowly crawled back into the game. Despite some missed free throws and Eli still struggling from the field; then JW started to get the step on the guards and he got to the free throw line, made a couple of lay ups against the 6′ 11′ kid and the crowd bought into it.
Then another steal and a Mustang was streaking ahead of the field towards our basket, Tony!!! BOOMCHAKALAKA!!!! Slam Dunk and Drag’s Court was ROCKIN! The Mustangs took the lead at 79-78; the hot shooting Cougars were nervous, frustrated and began fouling out. First the quick point guard Urrutia fouled out, then in the space of a couple of minutes 3 other starters for CCU fouled out including 6′ 11″ Neuhaus. It would not have mattered; by that time the Mustangs were in control. Jerron was doing all the little things to spark the defensive run; JW, Tony and Stefan were pressuring the guards. Chad came back in and he and Eli controlled the boards. JW and Chad began hitting free throws. It went to OT but the issue was decided. The Stang defense held the Cougars to just 1 of 8 shooting in the extra stanza.
WOW!!! They are young, they will be down and lose some games but man they do not quit; they are exciting and I can’t wait for the next game. And let’s not forget Coach; he did a great job putting the Stangs in a position to win with the adjustments and keeping them motivated. One last cudo; Darryl Littleton came in when Chad was in trouble and Chuck got hurt and gave the team solid minutes against Neuhaus keeping him from going off and putting the game out of reach. A true team effort, something that is becoming a trade mark for this edition of Mustang basketball.
The Mustangs dug themselves a hole, twice and almost played their way out of it. But you could see the problems defensively: the Stangs gave up too many easy baskets to the Mountain Lions of UCCS on Saturday night. In the first half alone UCCS had 17 baskets in the paint. Yet the Mustangs went on a tear and got it back to 6 pts but then had 3 unproductive possessions in a row. The good thing is they are improving in most areas; Jarron Macintosh is back but you can see some of the rust. I did like that Justin Williams is starting to grow into the role of leader; that will help the Mustangs gel more quickly.
Now they have 2 RMAC games at home this week. 1 of the first 6 at home is tough, even if 3 are in Hawaii. We’ll see if they can repeat the effort that got them their lone win this season. That would put us at 2-1 in the RMAC and then who knows?
