ATTICA — The end result wasn’t a victory, but the Fountain Central girls’ basketball team showed a 27-point improvement against rival Seeger on Wednesday night.
Seeger defeated Fountain Central 51-39 to win the Bi-County title. The Patriots had beaten the Mustangs 61-22 back on Dec. 12.
Fountain Central (5-5) jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, and led 13-9 after one quarter, but a 22-11 advantage by Seeger (10-1) in the second period proved to be the difference.
“I’m extremely proud of the way they played,” Fountain Central coach Jason Good said. “I feel like they earned some respect tonight, because I don’t feel like there were a lot of people, especially after losing to them by 40, I don’t think a lot of people thought we could compete tonight.”
Outside of the second quarter, the Mustangs proved otherwise — out-rebounding the Patriots 27-26 for the game, and knocking down 10-of-22 shots in the first half.
“It was the same things we’ve been talking about all year,” Good said. “Trying to focus on one possession at a time. Trying to explain to them that even though we lost to them by a bunch the first time there were so many things that if we could avoid, we could be in the game.”
Aubry Cole helped spark the Patriots first half run with a trio of 3-pointers. Cole led all scorers with 20 points, including 17 in the first half. Seeger led 31-24 at the break, and Fountain Central never cut the lead under seven the rest of the way.
Jerzi Hershberger led the Mustangs with 13, while Dakota Borman chipped in 12.
Despite dropping to .500 on the season, Fountain Central has already matched its win total from last season just 10 games into the season.
“I’m really proud of how much they’ve learned,” Good added. “It’s amazing to me how good of a job they’ve done just on things we’ve talked about. Really without getting to work on it, being out for 14 days with COVID, we haven’t got to practice some of the stuff we’ve wanted to.”
Fountain Central entertains Western Boone on Tuesday.
