Mustangs again cause Mason County consternation, closing the gap to 36-33 At Halftime. Thirty-two minutes and a superior opponent lead to our demise.
Our Mustangs and the Mason County Royals match up well. Suffice it to say that this is the reason we were able to take them to the wire back on February 10th in Maysville, and compete for much of three quarters tonight on the Grand Stage of the 10th Region Tournament at Holmes. However, asking them to compete for 32 minutes with a “short-bench” in a high-intensity game vs superior athletes, is probably simply asking too much. It doesn’t keep us from trying, or playing at the top of the game that we are capable of playing, because no one will ever fault this team for their effort. We were well prepared. Everything that we have done over the past 72 hours worked, but on this night it boiled down to physical endurance and our ability to play at such a high level for 32 minutes.
On the night that Melvin Webster passed away, it seemed ironic that our Mustangs would be playing at his alma mater, in the 10th Region Tournament Early on it appeared that Mason County might run away with this one. After leading 7-3 the Royals went on an 8-0 run to take an 11-7 advantage, Knocking down five 3-point shots, they built a 24-15 lead, from which a lesser team would not recover. In the second quarter it was our turn to outscore our opponents 18-12, as the Royals cooled off, and Mason Sepate put up 10 points including a pair of long-balls. At halftime, we had closed the gap to three points at 36-33, probably causing Coach Brian Kirk and his Royals some anxious moments. As an example of what we are capable of, in the first half we were 10 of 13 from 2 point range, and 3 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 4 of 4 from the charity stripe.
In the second half, the Mason County team depth and those 32 minutes of playing high intensity basketball took its toll, as the Royals outscored us 15-9 in the third quarter, expanding their lead to 51-42 with eight minutes left in our season, and David Govan’s high school career. For his efforts Govan was name to the All-Tournament Team. We missed a few close-in shots late in the game, as again the Royals were able to gain a 18-8 advantage and drew off to the 69-50 win, to advance to Monday’ night’s semi-finals where they will be the underdogs, taking on GRC in the 6pm game.
With this loss, the Mustangs close the book on the 2021-22 season. Having lost Robbie Verst during the first week of practice, put added stress on our guard corps. Eight games were lost by a maximum of four points, that with a 100% healthy squad could well have gone into the wins column. As is, we drop the curtain on the season with a 12-19 record, losing one “major” player to graduation, when David Govan walks down the aisle this spring. Govan checks out with 910 career points, good enough for 26th best all-time among St. Mary/Bishop Brossart scorers.