With both teams on the second night of back-to-back games, the Fountain Central Mustangs (7-8) and the Benton Central Bison (10-8) battled down to the wire on Saturday night. Benton Central would walk away with a 55-45 win in a thrilling contest.
The Mustangs came into Saturday night’s contest, beating Faith Chrisitan 69-62 on Friday night, their first win since December 29. Benton Central would claim their third win in a row, after coming off of wins against Seeger and McCutcheon.
Junior forward Hunter Sisson would walk away leading Benton Central in scoring with 24 points, scoring 15 in the second half, on 8-10 shooting, including six three-pointers. Sisson would have seven rebounds and one assist, to add to his scoring. Senior guard Ryan Foster would contribute 10 assists in the game, playing all 32 minutes.
After trailing 16-9 at the end of the first quarter, the Mustangs would bring their deficit to four points at the half, trailing 29-25. The game was in striking distance for the Mustangs going into the fourth quarter, down 44-38, but late foul trouble would plague them. Benton Central would have 12 of their 17 free throw attempts in the second half, with Fountain Central committing nine fouls in the second half.
Fountain Central senior Isaac Gayler would lead his team in scoring with 14 points, nine rebounds, one assist, on 6-9 shooting. Senior Will Harmon would contribute 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists on the night, as well as playing all 32 minutes. Despite the result, a postitive, according to coach Greg Dean, would be his team’s resilience.
“I thought we competed,” Dean said. “We gave ourself big opportunities. Our kids are showing a lot more resilience. I thought there was an opportunity where we could have packed it up and went home but they kept going when we were down. We got it down to five or six at one point there and we just didn’t capitialize. We’re getting to that point where resiliency is part of who we are and that’s going to be big down the stretch.”
The Mustangs have eight games left in the regular season, including games against Southmont
and Crawfordsville. Fountain Central will travel to face Covington on Thursday at 7:30 for their next contest.
