DOVER — It didn’t take long for Fountain Central boys basketball to assert their will over Western Boone on Saturday night. After a rare Friday night off the Mustangs made the trip to Dover and had one of the best first quarters coach Greg Dean could have asked out of his team. FC scored 20 straight points and went a perfect 5-5 from three in the first eight minutes of the game and after one quarter the score read 29-6 in favor of the Mustangs who were able to cruise to a 74-57 win.
The 35 point running clock was reached late in the third quarter after Brayden Prickett made a pair of free-throws. The Stars, against the Mustang JV were able to out-score them 22-7 in the final eight minutes.
“I though we were as good tonight offensively as we’ve been all season,” Dean said. “Obviously we shot it well but more importantly we shared the ball and a lot of our points came off of assists. Every single guy out there produced and players like Brayden Prickett, Owen Acton, Koby Wolf, and Eli Foxworthy were getting some shots. When we share the ball like we did tonight our offense is at its best.”
The one-two punch of Isaac Gayler and Will Harmon did their normal damage offensively as well. Gayler is continuing to have a great start to his season as the senior scored 22 points on 8-10 from the floor and 5-6 from the foul line. Harmon drilled three threes en route to a 14 point night. Acton ended the game with nine, Foxworthy eight, Wolf and Aiden Owen four, Nolan Acton and Rylan Mayotte two, and Gabe McCollum one.
Fountain Central (3-1) for the game shot 23-37 (62%) from the floor including a scorching hot 9-13 (69%) from three point range. FC also shot well from the foul line going 19-25 (76%) and grabbed 23 rebounds and turned the ball over 11 times.
Western Boone (2-6) was led in scoring by Marcus Fortner’s 19 points. Tristyn Faulk added 14, Luke Adkins eight, Quinn Westerfield six, Gavin Hawkins four, and Phillip Talbott and Carter Hanna rounded out the scoring with three each. The Stars shot 19-39 (49%) from the floor in the loss and 4-12 (33.3%) from three while going 15-25 (60%) from the foul line. They grabbed 19 rebounds while turning the ball over 12 times.
Dean wants his team’s success to start on the defensive side of the ball. FC has the athletic, physical players to give plenty of teams problems and Dean noted how that area is still a work in progress but he has seen improvements since the beginning of the season.
“We’re trying to get better on that end of the floor all the time,” Dean added. “I don’t think we were great but I’d call it pretty good with some room to still grow. We rebounded well and ended up getting stops. Even though I didn’t think we were fundamentally sound everywhere, we still were able to get stops and our kids kept battling after they made a mistake. I was glad also we could get our young guys some experience tonight too. Everytime those guys can see varsity action, that means we’re doing something right.”
The schedule now begins to heat up for the Mustangs. Thursday they’ll be at home to open up Bi-County play against Attica in a girl/boy double-header. Friday’s consolation and championship games will be at Seeger where the Mustangs will either take on Covington or Seeger. The week after FC will compete in the Clinton Central tournament and will play three games in two days.
