by Tyler Foster

On Dec. 15, the PCM Mustangs boys’ varsity basketball team looked to keep a grasp of the lead in the Heart of Iowa Conference. In a crazy game ending in crazy fashion, the Mustangs suffered a heartbreaking defeat with a last-second 3-pointer from Comet senior Brett Haun, leading to a final score of 60-58.
The Mustangs came out on fire, clicking on all cylinders as they pushed an 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter, which was eventually 14 midway through the second. However, the Comets would not give in, going on a significant run to end the half, pulling them within single digits, 25-22.
The second half was nothing short of spectacular as the Mustangs and Comets battled in a game where neither team could fully control the momentum. The Comets led 54-50 with just under a minute left, but PCM was not done. Senior Logan Gilman hit clutch free throws down the stretch to bring the Mustangs within one, 56-55, with 26 seconds remaining on the clock. After a made free throw, junior Sheldon Speers connected on what was probably the biggest shot of his career, knocking down a 3-pointer to give the Mustangs a 58-57 lead with 12.7 seconds remaining. All seemed to be won for the Mustangs, until Haun, who had 34 points on the night, drove down the court and hit a fading away three-point shot, sending the Comets into a frenzy.
Head Coach Fred Lorensen gave his thoughts on how the Mustangs performed.
“Well, we weren’t very good defensively. We were letting guys drive baseline, and we were letting them throw it to their post kids. All of the stuff we were supposed to do, we weren’t doing. We need to get better at that. You just can’t not guard people and expect to win very often.” Lorensen said.” did some really good things down the stretch getting back into the game. Sheldon made a big shot for us to put us ahead. We just needed one more itsy-bitsy stop there, and we just about got them. I mean, the guy throws it up there with half a second left, and from where he was when he shot it, they’re not going to make it very often, but they did.”
Leading scorers for the Mustangs were Gilman and Speers, who scored 25 and 13, respectively. Gilman is averaging a double-double a game with 21 points and 10 rebounds, as he leads the Mustangs to what is now a 4-2 record on the year.
The Mustangs are done for the year of 2015, but will look to bring a lot of energy to their next game as they travel to Nevada on Jan. 5 in a face-off against the Cubs, with the varsity game starting at 7:30 p.m.