MICHIGANTOWN — After capturing the Bi-County Championship last Friday, the Fountain Central boys basketball team was back in action on Thursday competing in the 63rd annual Clinton Central Tournament which is the oldest running holiday tournament in the state of Indiana. FC took on a very unfamiliar foe in the Noblesville Lions which are home-school team who is a non-IHSAA school. The Lions already had 16 total games under their belt and were 13-3 overall as well as averaging nearly 70 points per game. FC gave the Lions all they could handle but down the stretch wasn’t able to score enough. The Lions prevailed 47-39 to send the Mustangs to the consolation bracket.
Fountain Central (5-2) jumped out to a 15-11 lead after a quarter but Noblesville made it just a one point Mustang lead at 21-20 at halftime. The one point lead then flipped to the Lions at 31-30 after three. With 5:56 left in the game Noblesville lead 35-34. 14 seconds later senior guard Will Harmon fouled out of the game at the 5:42 mark and the Mustangs proceed to scoreless for just over five minutes until Owen Acton made a free-throw with 57 seconds left.
“We turned it over a few times down the stretch and ulimately got to the free-throw line and just couldn’t knock them down,” Mustang coach Greg Dean said. “If we convert those foul shots then things look a little different down the stretch. I still thought we did a lot of good things defensively. That team averages nearly 70 a game and we held them to 47. Our kids busted their tails on that side of the ball. Offensively I have to do a little better on getting us clicking on all cylinders.”
Noblesville (14-3) connected on 7-25 (28%) threes in the win and were 14-45 (31%) overall for the game. FC shot 13-43 (30%) f47or the game and just 2-10 (20%) from three. As Dean noted what hurt FC the most was their free-throw shooting where the Mustangs shot 11-23 (48%). The Mustangd did do a good job on the boards grabbing 40 total rebounds. They turned the ball over 14 times.
Isaac Gayler led the Mustangs with 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Owen Acton added 13 points and grabbed six boards. Harmon added seven and had three boards. With Harmon’s abscense and also Koby Wolf injuring his ankle earlier in the game, FC was limited offensively. Dean noted how some of his bench players did gain valuable experience that will pay off in the long run.
“Down the stretch of this season we’re going to need to play seven, eight, and nine guys and have that depth,” Dean said. “These situations are ones that start testing us. We’d obviously like to stay out of foul trouble a little more too and just not making silly fouls.”
The Mustangs get the Carroll Cougars in the consolation semi-finals .
