VEEDERSBURG — Tuesday evening Fountain Central played their final home game of the 2022-23 season as they welcome Tri-County to Dave Sanders Court. Coming off a big WRC win on Tuesday against Covington, the Mustangs looked to get over the .500 mark as they came in with a record of 9-9. For a half the Mustangs were right there with the Cavs, who downed Seeger on Tuesday, but the second half proved to be dominated by the visitors as the Mustangs fell 49-35.
The score read 20-19 Cavs after the first half of play, but a 7-0 spurt to begin the third gave Tri-County breathing room at 27-19. FC had the game at 29-24 before another 6-0 run for the Cavs gave them a double figure lead at 35-24 and after that the Mustangs were just not able to battle back.
“We were right there to a really good team,” first-year Mustang coach Sam Karr said. “They (Tri-County) beat Seeger just on Tuesday and we stayed with them for a good chunk of the game. I’ll say with the season winding down, I wouldn’t want to play us in the sectional. If we can cut down our turnovers (23) to around 15 its a different game. That will give us more looks offensively and allow us to stay in the game longer.”
Tri-County’s full-court pressure was a big reason for them building their lead in the third quarter. However when FC did break the press, they were getting good looks. Karr continues to take the little things away from the losses and knows his team is making great strides from when they started the year.
“We got down the first time to begin that third quarter and battled right back,” he said. “We wouldn’t have done that at the beginning of the year. Offensively we were getting great looks time after time, just have to make some more open layups. We’re going to fix that and the little bad stretch where we turned it over and be just fine.”
Sophomore Hannah Prickett continued her great play for FC as she scored 18 points which tied a game-high. Kacey Kirkpatrick added seven, with Brailey Hoagland scoring six. Both Laney Hoagland and KayLee Spragg added two each.
The visiting Cavs had three players in double figures as Johnetta Whitmire had 18 points on a perfect 8-8 shooting. Hannah Arvin scored 15 points to go along with seven rebounds, and Sara Zarse added 10.
In the win the Cavs shot 19-40 (47.5%) from the field but just 1-10 from three point range while going 10-15 (67%) from the free-throw line. They grabbed 23 rebounds (12 offensive) and turned the ball over 13 times.
Fountain Central shot 13-31 (42%) from the floor and 4-6 (67%) from three and 5-7 (71%) from the free-throw line. FC hauled in 20 rebounds and as previously mentioned turned it over 23 times.
Karr loved what he saw from Prickett and noted how the other girls are also beginning to slowly find their own rhythm on offense to help out Prickett.
“Hannah’s been our go-to all year, and she continues to produce night in and night out for us,” Karr said of Prickett. “If we can get her doing her thing along with girls like Rylee Simko, Kacey, and Brailey who are all starting to chip in a little bit, then we can be a scary team when you combine that with how we can play defense.”
The loss for the Mustangs sees their record fall to 9-10 on the season. Their final three games of the season will all be on the road. They take a trip to Parke Heritage next Thursday before taking on South Vermillion (Jan. 24) and Riverton Parke to conclude the regular season on Jan. 26.
