by Dylan Sanders

In a game that was close from start to finish, the boys’ basketball team faced off against conference leader South Hamilton but lost 65-58 after leading by nine in the third quarter. Junior Jackson Thomas led the Mustangs with 25 points on 9 of 14 shooting. The game was played at Jewell on Jan. 3.

The Mustangs opened with an early 15-13 lead in the first quarter. Head Coach Fred Lorensen said, “ We did a pretty good job of making them shoot perimeter shots in the first half, and they missed quite a few of them.”

The Mustangs maintained the lead through the third quarter. The Hawks ended the game on an 18-8 run through the fourth quarter.

“I think I can continue to score and get my teammates involved in the game,” Thomas said. “We struggled to score in the fourth quarter of the game. If I and others on the team can score consistently, then we will be fine.”

Other Mustangs who contributed in scoring were junior Elijah Sperfslage who scored nine points along with his seven rebounds, senior Mark Bruxvoort with nine, and sophomore Andrew Van Ryswyk scored seven points. Sophomore Reed Worth and freshman Derek Brown both tallied four.

Lorensen said, “We need to improve our defensive rebounding. South Hamilton had a lot of second chance opportunities, and they got a lot of easy lay- ups because of that. In the fourth quarter we struggled, but we are a young team so this was good step because we need to be able to finish these types of games. We had the lead in the fourth quarter but blew it, so we need to be able to hold onto the lead.”

The Mustangs are 3-2 in conference play.