VEEDERSBURG — Champions.
It’s a word that never grows old to an athlete or coach. The glimmer will never fade.
The Fountain Central basketball team now owns a place on the wall of champions at Dave Sanders Court with a 68-45 Wabash River Conference win over North Vermillion.
The win was convincing, and puts the cherry on top of a perfect conference season for the Mustangs, who win the outright WRC title for the first time since 1991 and in any way, shape or fashion since 2003.
They finish 7-0 in the league, they move to 18-4 for the season and do no damage to their No. 4 state ranking.
It is also a pretty nice birthday present for FC coach Greg Dean, who wins his first conference title as a coach while adding a year to his drivers license Saturday.
“I’m so happy for the kids first,” the coach said as he was offering celebration cupcakes to all. “I’m just so glad we got the win, got the title. We had some real barnburner games. This is just so great for them, for the families, for the school, for everyone connected to Fountain Central basketball.”
There was never a doubt about the game, as the Mustangs dropped a couple buckets early and built the lead from then on.
They did most everything well.
They shot really well overall. They shot well from beyond the arc. The starters had only five turnovers.
The free throw shooting was off, and the they got out-rebounded, but that takes no luster off the fact that they are the champions.
“Our community is so behind this team,” Dean noted. “The students have been just great and it’s exciting to be at school. The way these kids work all the time – in the weight room, at practice and at games. They’ve been playing together since they were little kids, and that work is paying off. We have three goals, and two of them are now in our pocket. We won the Bi-County Tournament, and now the conference. The next and biggest goal is the sectional, and that is next.”
The Bi-County title has also been a ways off, as it was the first since 2009.
The Mustangs were led in scoring by Will Harmon, as the junior continues to find the shooting range. He finished with 22 and had a team-best five assists.
Mason Larkin had a great second half, scoring all 13 of his points after intermission, and Isaac Gayler added 11, to go with a team-best six rebounds.
For the game, FC was 26-of-47 from the field, 11-of-24 from long range and 5-of-11 from the line. They finished with 28 rebounds, two less than the Falcons, and had a total of eight turnovers. They did score 20 points off of 18 North Vermillion miscues.
The visitors, who fall to 6-14 for the season and 3-3 in the WRC, also got a look at the floor they return to in two weeks for the sectional.
They were led in scoring by Jerome White, and the junior also had a game-best seven rebounds.
Overall, NV was 15-of-45 from the field, 6-of-22 from deep and 9-of-10 from the line.
“We honored the first Fountain Central sectional champions last week,” Dean said, noting the ‘73 team that had his father on the staff. “They are up on the wall. Now these guys can go up on the wall with the conference title, but they want to be up there for a sectional too.”
That effort starts in two weeks, and the Mustangs will host their own 1A tournament.
“Our offense is pretty good,” Dean said of the team as they near the end of the regular season. “We still have some things we can do better defensively. We hang our hat on our defense – it travels if the offense does not. We just want to be better every possession. We had guys like Harmon score tonight, we had Gayler rebounding and Larkin is getting better off his rib injury. Everybody has a role and does their job. It’s so good to see the kids so driven to accomplish their goals.”
They have one game left in the regular season, and will honor their three seniors next Tuesday when they take on Sheridan.
