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Mustangs prevail
Mathews cruises past Mineral Ridge
By Greg Gulas
VIENNA
Home court for the Mathews High School basketball teams has become affectionately known as “The Shoebox.” Monday, the Mustangs boys team was as comfortable as someone wearing a new pair of slippers in a 69-40 victory over Mineral Ridge. Sean McDivitt scored 20 points and Tyler Koeppen added 11 to pace Mathews to its second victory.
In the doubleheader, the Mineral Ridge girls team needed overtime for a 59-56 win over Mathews. Alexa Harkins and Taryn Kolesar combined to score all 11 of the Rams’ overtime points. Harkins had a game-high 25 points while Kolesar finished with 20 points.
Boys
Koeppen scored five points in the opening quarter to stake the Mustangs (2-5) to a 15-9 advantage. Five more points from McDivitt in the second quarter propelled Mathews to a 33-23 lead at the intermission.
“We’re coming together as a team and getting better each time out,” McDivitt said. “We had much better shot selection tonight and you can just see the team chemistry taking shape.”
A 25-point third quarter by the Mustangs opened a 58-29 lead. Their defense limited the Rams to six points in the quarter.
“The last two times out against Bristol and Rootstown, our scores weren’t indicative of how hard we played,” Mathews head coach Mark Mollahan said. “Turnovers have been our story all season, but we were able to overcome that part of our game tonight.
“As long as we keep working hard, then we’ll get better,” said Mollahan who also commended Mineral Ridge coach Stephen Hughes’ team.
“They’re a tough team and don’t let their record fool you,” Mollahan said.
Christian DiRando led the Rams with 15 points.
The teams combined to commit 46 turnovers, 26 by the Mustangs.
Girls
Leading 10-8 after the opening quarter, Mathews (5-3) built a 26-14 advantage on a bucket by Kat Schubert with 2:37 remaining before the half.
Harkins’ four points keyed a 5-0 run to end the opening session as Mineral Ridge (5-3) closed to within 26-19 at the break.
“We were lazy in the first half, didn’t rebound and weren’t very good defensively,” Harkins said. “Coach [Matt] Cluse told us at the half to play better defense, don’t allow easy lay-ups and we’d find ourselves back in the game.”
A free throw by Mathews’ Morgan Williams with 32 seconds remaining gave the Mustangs a 33-27 lead.
Harkins scored all 11 of the Rams’ points in the third quarter. Her last four sliced the lead to 33-30.
Mathews took a 47-46 lead with six seconds remaining when Paige Sponsler connected on two free throws.
Harkins was fouled as time ran out and converted just one of her two free-throw attempts to knot the score at 47-47 and force an extra session.
Harkins and Kolesar took over in the overtime period, despite two triples by Mathews’ Cara Bornemiss and another from beyond the arc by Sponsler.
“My mindset in overtime was to score or find the open player and get her the ball,” Kolesar said. “Picking it up defensively in the second half was the key for us. This is a really big win for us.”
Sponsler led the Mustangs with 20 points while Williams added 13 and Schubert 10.