VEEDERSBURG — The Bi-County Tournament is always a great way for Covington, Attica, Seeger, and Fountain Central to get some competition against each other. Wednesday night was the opening round of the annual tournament for the Mustangs who hosted Seeger. In the girls contest FC got a re-match vs the Patriots from back on Dec. 6 (a 55-34 loss) and once again the Lady Patriots came out on top, this time in a much closer contest as FC fell 40-26.
In the highly anticipated boys game between the No. 4 ranked 5-0 Mustangs and the 6-1 Patriots, FC came away with a 49-36 win in their first true test of the season to stay unbeaten.
The score might have not been in the Lady Mustangs favor, but Fountain Central gave the 10-1 Patriots all they could handle on Wednesday. Seeger on the season averages 56 points per game and FC’s defense played well for much of the evening. The difference was the young Mustangs couldn’t get enough offense going for multiple stretches of the game. A Brailey Hoagland steal and score made the score 16-10 Seeger after 16 minutes of play. FC got the game within four at 16-12, but that’s as close as the Patriots allowed them to get.
First-Year Mustang coach Sam Karr took away plenty of positives from the loss as he saw the effort and determination his girls were playing with.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for us to a hold a team like that to 40 points,” he said. “We played them pretty well for awhile the first time and I expected them (Seeger) to not take us for granted. For us to play as well as we have against them both times now is a confidence builder for sure.”
Even Patriots head coach Chad Wetz took notice of what FC did against them and credited the Mustangs for how hard they played.
“They’re a well coached team and had a nice game plan coming in,” Wetz said. “They really made it tough for us to get the driving lanes that we liked. I though we acted like at times that we didn’t want to shoot it or rebound. Those are two of strengths and you have to hand it to Fountain Central because for awhile I think they smelled an upset and were determined to do it.”
Seeger’s Aubry Cole led all scorers in the game with 17 points and Paige Laffoon added eight while Addie Schrader scored seven. Anna Moore scored five for the Patriots, Rylea Wetz two and CeCe Blankenship rounded out the scoring with one.
Hannah Prickett scored seven to lead the Mustangs with seven of her own. Brailey Hoagland added six while both Kacey Kirkpatrick and Rylee Simko scored four. Katie Brown dropped three while KayLee Spragg ended the night with two.
Fountain Central falls to 8-8 on the season with the loss and they will play in the consolation game back at Fountain Central tomorrow morning vs Covington.
The Patriots improve to 11-1 on the year and will play in the championship game beginning at 1 pm vs Attica.
