VEEDERSBURG — After suffering a crushing defeat against South Vermillion the nigh before, Fountain Central boys looked to put that loss in the rear view mirror as they hosted WRC rival Seeger. Everything looked good for the Mustangs as they controlled the game for the first three quarters taking a 35-28 lead into the final quarter. Then things went quickly south for the Mustangs on defense as the Patriots doubled their point total with a 28-point fourth quarter to come from behind to defeat the Mustangs 56-52.
The turning point came when the Mustangs were up 51-44. Luke Pluimer converted an and one attempt followed by two straight threes from Michael Winchester and just like that Seeger had scored the last nine to take their first lead of the game.
Despite the loss first-year Mustang coach Greg Dean saw plenty of positive things from his team in the game.
“I’m very proud of our effort that our guys put in tonight especially after the way we played on Friday,” Dean said. “They had some motivation and desire to come out and play better and redeem themselves. Down the stretch defensively we didn’t execute and that ended up costing us and also took some ill-advised shots. We’ll learn from those things. Sometimes it takes a game like tonight to show the guys where we can get better from.”
Will Harmon led FC with 14 points in the loss while Mason Larkin scored 13 and Isaac Gayler added in 12.
Owen Snedeker led all scorers with 17 points for Seeger. Both Winchester and Pluimer each scored 12 of their own while Cameron Laws added in 11.
Dean also saw this an opportunity to see how his team plays in close and tight games because he knows thats exactly the same situation his team will face down the stretch of the regular season and in the sectional.
“You need games like this throughout the course of the year,” he said. “It helps sharpen you and teaches the guys to battle through some adversity. You hate that it comes in a loss, but down the stretch when we’re in this same situation we can look back and know we’ve been through it before.”
The Mustangs fall to 8-6 on the year with the loss. The schedule does start to tighten up for the Mustangs as their next few games will feature Crawfordsville on Friday, Clinton Prairie the next day, Benton Central and Covington the following week.
“We have a tough stretch coming up no question about it,” Dean said. “If we battle like we did tonight then I think we can beat anyone on our schedule. We got a lot of basketball to play and I’m excited to see where we’ll go.”
