Gov. Mifflin trending in right direction
If things break right, with Berks League play looming, last year’s Governor Mifflin Mustangs will be a distant hardwood memory. If the preamble serves, it is trending in that direction.
Mifflin’s boys’ basketball team improved to a perfect 4- 0 last Wednesday, Dec. 14 with a gut-check 54-50 victory on the road at Lebanon, the final nonconference tune-up for the Mustangs prior to entering Berks play. The Mustangs fell behind early to the Cedars, battled back to take the lead and eventually push it to double-dig- its after the break, only to hold on for dear life down the stretch when the hosts made a closing run.
Lebanon is expected to be a player in Lancaster-Lebanon Section 1 this winter and had already dispatched one of the favorites in Manheim Twp., so Mifflin’s road win was not a trifling one.
It is not as though last season’s Mustang team was poor; far from it. It’s just that it never went anywhere. After starting the 2015-16 season with a pair of wins, the Mustangs lost their next two games, then hit the see-saw for what seemed to be the balance
of the slate. Mifflin finished 12-12, befitting of its win one-lose one pattern, in a tough Berks 1 section headed by a 28-4 Reading outfit.
Through four games this year, however, there is a tenacity, a fortitude, not felt a year ago.
It started off the hop in the first game of season at the Southern Lehigh Tournament on Dec.9, where the Mustangs beat Dieruff 6965 in double overtime. A 56- 51 win over District 1’s Harriton – after falling behind 34-11 – followed in the tournament title game, then a 53-45 triumph over Garden Spot in the home opener on the 13th.
A repelling of the Cedars on their home floor last Wednesday continued that clutch pattern.
“We hang our hat on defense,” Mifflin head coach Dan Haughney said, in a brief interview conducted outdoors when a precocious child pulled a low-lying fire alarm after the game and caused a mandatory gym evacuation. “We guard really well.”
Dylan Patton provided a huge second-quarter spark with a trio of 3-pointers after Mifflin fell behind 13-6; Jared Peters was sizzling in the second half on the way to a game-high 20 points and was a key cog in Mifflin moving out to a 43-32 bulge – an edge need when Lebanon closed the contest on an 18-9 run. Twice, the Cedars got to within a bucket down the stretch – at 48-46 and 50-48 – but could overtake their guests.
Patton finished with 11 points. Khalique Washington led Lebanon, with 17.
“This is our third year as a staff,” Haughney said. “Guys like Peters and Patton and (Isiah) Tisdale and (Ben) Walmer have been with us for a while now. They’ve been hearing the same things for a while now and they’re starting to believe. It’s kind of nice. We’ve never been 4-0 in my three years.”
Berks play awaits. The Mustangs will have faced Section 2’s Twin Valley on Tuesday, prior to traveling to Robesonia on Thursday to play Conrad Weiser. Mifflin does not commence Section 1 play until Jan. 3, when the Mustangs host Daniel Boone.
EXETER>> The Eagles are 2-2 in non-conference play this season, last week splitting its games by topping Cocalico 59-57 on Dec. 13 and falling to Warwick 57-54 on Dec. 17.
Malik Clark hit a pair of final-second free throws to top Cocalico. Devon Jackson scored 27 and Spencer Murray added 13.
Warwick came through late to deny the Eagles after the game was tied 39-39 after three quarters. Jackson had 18 and Gabe Schap- pell had 15 in the loss.
DANIELBOONE>> The Blazers are off to a 2-0 start, last week topping Brandywine Heights 53-56 on Dec. 13 before a 69-39 rout of Oley Valley on Dec. 17.
Ian Rathgeb and Ryan Okuniewski scored 21 and 17, respectively, in downing the Bullets.
In the one-sided win over the Lynx that had the Blazers up 35-22 at halftime, Okuniewski netted 18, Rathgeb 15 and Luke Heffner scored nine.