BY MIKE RILEY
NEW WASHINGTON — Not only is practice used to hone a team’s skills, but it is utilized to prepare for the upcoming opponent as well.
Take the latter part of that statement as what was lacking by the New Washington Mustangs on Friday as they dropped a 64-61 Southern Athletic Conference game to Lanesville at the James Matthews Gymnasium.
“We practice well, but you have to have that carry over into the games,” said New Washington coach Jonathan May. “You have to pay attention to the details of the scouting report.”
That was evident more than once Friday, but in particular at the start of the fourth quarter which found New Washington (5-10, 2-1 SAC) trailing 50-44.
In less than a minute, back-to-back 3-pointers by Devin Freels and Drake Krohn tied the score at 50. After Lanesville’s Brandon Mullens hit one of two free throws, Jacob Ramer scored to give the Mustangs their first lead since 22-21 midway in the second quarter.
They had a chance to extend that lead. But Krohn, in consecutive trips to the line, could make only 1-of-4.
Nick Hammond’s 3-pointer put the Eagles (10-6, 3-1) back on top by one. Dustin Bowman answered with a trey for the Mustangs. But that lead would be their last as the Eagles eventually built the lead to 64-59 before a follow at the buzzer by Ramer provided the follow margin.
“That was a big basket by Hammond,” May said. “We knew that he and (Bryant) Conder were their big scorers and we let him knock one down. Again, it’s about paying attention to the details of the scouting report. Part of that in the heat of the moment is that you really have to focus. You can’t think what you’re going to do. You have to be ready at that moment.”
Another Achilles heel for the Mustangs were turnovers. They finished with 18, with half of those coming in the third quarter. And at least half of those came after the Mustangs forcing a turnover.
“That can kill a rally,” May said. “A lot of those came when we were trying to pass over the top, something we had worked on in practice.”
Krohn led the Mustangs and was the game’s high scorer with 24 points. But he converted only 7-of-13 free throws, including 2-of-6 in the fourth quarter.
“He’s shooting 59 percent after 14 games,” May said. “But there’s only one other guy on the team that I would rather have up there. When you stand up there, you have to have some arrogance. Not being cocky, but being confident that you can hit them.”
Freels added 16 points for New Washington. Ramer added 10 points and just missed a double-double as he had nine rebounds.
Lanesville placed four in double figures, led by Conder with 19 points. Hammond added 18, Andy Glomb had 12 and Chris Gayhart had 10.
“We did some things well tonight, but there are some things we can improve on,” said Lanesville coach Mikel Miller. “Both teams hit big shots all night. But we were able to finish at the foul line tonight where we hadn’t in some previous games. Conder got going early tonight, but we had four in double figures so it wasn’t just one guy.”
“Three things hurt us tonight,” May said. “One was turnovers. Two was knowing their personnel and three was offensive execution. I can think of four or five times where we tried to run a set and the one time we did it right we scored.”
New Washington will hit the road tonight to face Trinity Lutheran.
“We have a chance to fix things,” May said. “They’re long like Lanesville and they like to play a 1-2-2 zone. And we’re 2-1 in the conference now with two games left. We control our own destiny. We can at least share the conference title. That hasn’t been done here since 1998, and that’s a goal of ours.”
LANESVILLE 13 21 16 14—64
NEW WASHINGTON 15 14 15 17—61
Lanesville (10-6, 3-1 SAC) — Hammond 18, Gayhart 10, Kissel 0, Glomb 12, Conder 19, Schultz 0, Frazier 0, Mullens 3, Browning 2.
New Washington (5-10, 2-1) — Radford 2, Bowman 6, Ramer 10, Freels 16, Krohn 24, Wiggam 0, Bower 3, Woods 0.
3-point field goals — Lanesville 4 (Hammond, Glomb 2, Conder); New Washington 8 (Krohn 3, Freels, Bowman 2, Ramer, Bower).
Rebounds — Lanesville 29 (Conder 8); New Washington 27 (Ramer 9).
Turnovers — Lanesville 13, New Washington 18.
Junior varsity score — Lanesville 52, New Washington 21.
