VEEDERSBURG — Despite the loss of 1,000-point scorer Nathaniel Butts, and double-figure scorer Aaron Barnett, Fountain Central boys’ basketball coach Phil Shabi is excited about the Mustangs future.
“We spent a lot of time this offseason working to improve our individual fundamentals,” he said. “Carson Eberly, Jake Smith, and Andrew Shabi return plenty of experience and are going to be counted on to produce and be leaders.”
Eberly averaged 6.6 points per game last season, and returns for his junior season, while Shabi, a junior, averaged 1.64 3-pointers per game as a sophomore. Smith returns as a senior, who averaged 7.3 points and five rebounds a game as a junior.
While figuring out how to replace the scoring lost from Butts and Barnett, Shabi says the Mustangs must pick up the intensity on the defensive end.
“The most important thing for us to start the season is going to be competing physically on the defensive end,” he said. “This will keep us in games while we develop our offensive identity.”
In addition to Eberly, Shabi, and Smith, the Mustangs will turn to juniors Colton Robinson, Cole Kirkpatrick, and Cody Linville to make a big leap from the junior varsity. Senior Denton Otero is also expected to make an impact this season.
As the Mustangs try to improve on a 13-12 record from last season, Shabi says they will take in the season a single possession at a time.
“As a program, our focus is on playing one possession at a time,” he said. “We have certain outcomes that we hope to achieve each possession on both offense and defense, so we focus on achieving those outcomes in that moment. We want to win the possession.”
Fountain Central opened the season with a 47-41 win over Schlarman (Ill) on Monday night, and will conclude their Illinois tournament later this week. The Mustangs open up their Indiana slate against North Montgomery on Saturday, Dec. 7 at home at 7:30 p.m.
