COVINGTON — Fountain Central basketball had a quick turnaround on Thursday as both the girls and boys teams played in the consolation games of the Holiday Tournament, both against the Red Ramblers of Attica.
Both Mustang teams would get back in the win column as the girls brought home a 42-30 win and the boys dominated for three quarters in a 66-22 victory.
Lady Mustangs rebounding leads to win
Fountain Central on Wednesday night struggled to rebound against Covington in their 37-31 loss. That script quickly flipped into the Mustangs favor Thursday as FC out-rebounded the Red Ramblers 34-23.
In a first half that saw 23 combined fouls called. Because of that the Red Ramblers were able to stay in the game as the score was 15-13 in favor of the Mustangs.
A 12-4 third period however for FC put them up 27-17 and the lead swelled to 35-20 halfway through the fourth before Attica made the score look a little nicer in the games final minutes.
“One of the challenges of coaching a young team is to bounce back after a tough loss the previous night,” Mustang coach Jason Good said. “We played hard tonight and had a lot of different girls contribute in a lot of different ways.”
Jerzi Hershberger and Larissa Bowers each had 10 points to lead the Mustangs in the win. Hershberger added in nine rebounds while Hannah Prickett scored eight points and had a team-high 10 boards. Bowers added six rebounds of her own.
“When you have two guards rebounding as well as Hannah and Jerzi did tonight that’s going to help things a lot,” Good said of the play of his guards. “We didn’t give up many offensive rebounds either which was good to see.”
CeCe Rice led all scorers with 11 points in the game for Attica, but it didn’t come easy as she shot 3-11 in the game. Fountain Central’s defense as a whole forced Attica to shoot 6-30 for the game and the Red Ramblers only made 13-24 attempts from the foul line. Good said the message was pretty simple coming out of the locker room to begin the third quarter.
“The main thing I told the girls was learning to adjust to the officials and the way they were calling the game,” Good said. “We had to come out and stop reaching and most of our fouls were just us making silly mistakes. That was our emphasis to just play straight up and make them attempt difficult shots and keep them off the foul line.”
The Mustangs improve to 5-9 with the win over the Red Ramblers. They will be back in action on Tuesday as they travel to take on Western Boone (4-7).
Mustang boys flex their muscle in dominating win
After a lackluster performance in a 52-23 loss against Covington on Thursday, the Fountain Central boys had something to prove as the took on Attica.
The Mustangs knew they were better than what the scoreboard showed.
FC got off to a bit of a slow start in the opening quarter as they trailed 7-4. Things got going for the Mustangs mid-way through the second quarter and they used an 8-0 run to take a 22-16 lead into the locker room.
The second half was simply dominated by the Mustangs. A 30-point third quarter was combined with a 36-0 run overall and FC was able to run away with the game. Attica scored their only two points of the fourth in the final seconds on made free-throws.
Fountain Central’s defense forced 28 turnovers which allowed them to push the tempo and get easy lay-ins. Mustang coach Greg Dean talked about the dominating display that his team was able to put on.
“I just told the guys in the locker room that we weren’t very good in the first half on offense,” the first-year Mustang coach said. “We weren’t forcing shots up as much and started to really attack the right gaps in that second half. I never would have ever envisioned scoring 36 straight points in any game that I coached.”
What was equally as impressive for Fountain Central, who improves to 8-4 with the win, was the fact that 11 different players scored a bucket.
Will Harmon led the way with 14 points while both Ely Thompson and Isaac Gayler each had 12.
“We’re fortunate to have a lot of depth,” Dean said. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword for us because we have guys who want to play. We just keep rotating guys and find the lineup that gets us what we want at that time. Mason Larkin, Ely Thompson, and Seth Martin all drove the train for us at different points tonight. You just have to find the guys that are ready to go sometimes.” Seth Miller and Jamairie Johnson each had eight to lead the Red Ramblers who are still in search of the first win as they fall to 0-5.
The Mustangs have now played 12 games already this season, more than most teams. Dean wants his team to use this strong start and carry it over into the next portion of their schedule.
“We’re looking forward to next week and have a full week to get ready for North Putnam,” he said. “We’ve completed the first third of our schedule and we’ve had some success so far, but we have room to grow still. Our guys have earned some rest and are looking forward to finally playing in front of our home fans again.”
The Mustangs game against the Cougars next Friday will begin a four-game home stand for the Mustangs who have played just a single game at home so far.