Mustangs Fall To Taller Patriots
With 6-10 University of Arkansas signee S.K. Shittu guarding the paint, the McDonald County Mustangs had little success scoring from the inside.
The rest of Providence Patriots took care of the perimeter with a smothering zone defense, holding the Mustangs to 25 points in the Patriots 55-25 win on Feb. 10 at Providence Academy in Rogers, Ark.
“I thought we played hard and competed hard,” said coach Kyle Fields. “They are just a real good team and very athletic. It was good for us to see that kind of height and athletic ability.”
Providence scored the game’s first seven points before Cooper Reece got the Mustangs on the scoreboard with a short jumper. Providence stretched its lead to 15-5 at the end of the quarter, including the first of four dunks the Patriots had in the game.
Providence opened the second quarter much the same way it did the first, scoring eight straight points before Blake Gravette hit a three pointer and Tim Shields banked in basket from the block to cut the Patriot lead to 23-10. But Providence closed out the first half with a 9-0 run to take a 32-10 lead at halftime.
The closest McDonald County could get in the third quarter was 16 points before Providence went on a 12-2 run to take a 49-22 lead into the fourth quarter.
“Again, we competed hard, but we were just outmatched tonight,” Fields said. “Hopefully playing against this kind of competition will help us the rest of the year.”
Reece and Rustan Lett scored six points each to lead the Mustangs. Rounding
out the scoring for McDonald County were Gravette with five points, Shields and Boston Dowd three each and Brandon McAdams two.
Lamar
Gravette’s three-pointer to open the fourth quarter gave McDonald County a 48-44 lead, but Lamar answered with a 13-0 run on the way to a 65-55 win Monday night at MCHS.
McDonald County led 20-18 after the first quarter, 32-30 at halftime and 45-44 after three quarters before Lamar used a 21-10 advantage in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Gravette and Reece each scored 16 points to lead McDonald County. Round- ing out the scoring for the Mustangs were Dowd with nine points, Jones five, McAdams four, Lett three and Cole Delos-Santos two.
Sam Timmons scored 28 points, including 10 on dunks, to lead Lamar.
The Tigers added a 58-49 win in the junior varsity game.
The freshmen salvaged McDonald County’s lone win with a 55-31 victory over the Tigers. Damian Materne and Cade Smith each scored 10 points to lead McDonald County.
McDonald County’s varsity falls to 3-20 overall, 2-3 in the Big 8 Conference, heading into its Feb. 17 game at Mount Vernon. The freshman game begins at 5 p.m. followed by the junior varsity and varsity games.