Mullen uses big first half to defeat Twin Loup on the road
TAYLOR - The Class D2 No. 8 Mullen girls basketball team won their sixth straight game on the road in Taylor on Jan. 19 vs Twin Loup. The Broncos used a strong first two-quarters of play to take out the Wolves 5525.
“We were just moving the ball really well and we were getting some good shots from the entire team,” Mullen girls basketball coach Clint Svoboda said. “We also put some good pressure on them which created some easy points in transition. Things were just going our way there for a while.”
One of the challenging parts going into the game for Mullen was dealing with the height that Twin Loup presented. Svoboda admitted that at times it caused his team some trouble.
“That was a challenge for us,” Clint Svoboda said. “They did a good job of throwing it over the top a couple of times and getting to the rim on us.”
It didn’t take long for the Broncos to figure it out, as they ended up outscoring the Wolves 15-7 in the first quarter. That was followed by a 22-6 second quarter, giving Mullen a commanding 3713 halftime lead.
In the second half, with the game well in hand, the scoring started to slow down for the Broncos. Despite that, they still outscored Twin Loup 10-5 and 8-7 in the final
two-quarters of action.
“Basketball is all predicated on playing together and as one unit and I thought we did a good job communicating,” Clint Svoboda said. “Ultimately we were able to hold them down at key points of the game for us and that really helped in the end.”
Leading Mullen in scoring was Samantha Moore with 13 points and Taylor Svoboda with 11 points. Finishing just outside of double digits was Kylie Licking with eight points, Shelby Welsh with six points, and Michelle Brown had five points.
Welsh led the team in rebounds with seven in the contest while Licking had four, and Moore and Brown each pulled down three.
The Wolves were paced in the point category by Kathryn Folkers with six points, Karina Kitt with five points, and Madison Barker with four points.
On Saturday, Jan. 23 Twin Loup played in the first round of the MNAC Girls Basketball Tournament at Arthur County High School. The Wolves took on Hyannis and defeated the Longhorns by a final of 60-30.
Finishing with a clutch performance was Folkers down low with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Kitt was also in double figures with ten points, six rebounds, and two steals.
The Wolves move on to play D1 No. 5 Anselmo-Merna in the next round of the tournament. Mullen’s next game is against Sandhills-Valley who defeated Brady 38-33 in the first round of the MNAC.
The games were supposed to be played on Jan. 25 in Merna and Mullen, but due to snow, the games were pushed back to Jan. 26. Keep updated on the scores and results of the MNAC Tournament at the sports tab at custercountychief.com.