MHS - Men's Basketball / February 1, 2020 By Kasey McDowell
The MMS Cats traveled to Wellington on Thursday, January 30th for a Patriot League matchup with the Wellington Crusaders. The 8th-grade boys continued their strong performance on the court and dominated the Crusaders in both games, 46-15 and 43-10. The 7th-grade boys had some trouble getting points and were swept 15-50 and 9-31. The 8A team is currently sitting at 4-0 on the season and 8B is 3-1. The 7A team is currently sitting at 0-4 on the season and 7B is 2-2.
"The A and B game was the same story, we made them make mistakes and we capitalized on them. Shannon Fuller's had another good game on D with 7 steals. Kaiden Abasolo had a good night on both ends of the floor. Aiden McKee had a well-rounded game and was a big impact on both ends of the floor. It was a good night for us, all 16 players played in the A-game tonight. Our goal is to own the tempo each night we play and the boys did a great job of that tonight." said Coach Hargrove.
Kaiden Abasolo led the Cats with 13 points followed by Aiden McKee (9), Shannon Fuller (4), Gavin Wayman (4), Garrett Olson (4), Canon Lampe (3), Tucker Hargrove (2), Gavin Clinesmith (2), Gavin Young (2), Josh Lien (2), and Colton Fleming (1).
8A 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 20 15 7 4 46
WMS: 3 2 6 4 15
"B team started the night off with great D. Will Perkins, Garrett Booe and Tucker Hargrove did a good job of pressure at the top of our D to make Wellington make bad passes. Luke Sorensen did a great job of jumping passes and pushing the ball to our end of the court. Josh Lien and Kaden Richecky both had a good night in the paint. Those two are tough guys to move in the paint and give other teams trouble when it comes to rebounds. I'm really happy with the way Josh has played in the last couple of games." said Coach Hargove.
Josh Lien led the Cats with 14 points followed by Lucas Sorensen (7), Gavin Clinesmith (6), Kayden Richecky (6), Colton Fleming (4), Jet Jorns (4), and Tucker Hargrove (2).
8B 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 14 6 10 12 43
WMS: 4 4 2 0 10
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In the 7th grade A-game, the Cats got down in the first quarter quick as they had some trouble scoring and were down 0-28 after 1. The rest of the game was a little more even but the Cats lost 15-50. Cooper Slayton got in foul trouble early so his time was more limited than usual. Dylan Mow ended with 7 points and 5 rebounds. Slayton and Aiden Heckathorn both ended with 4.
"Wellington has a very talented group of boys this year that is tall, fast, and athletic. They came out and were clicking on both sides of the floor. Their pressure led to several turnovers by our guards. Their shooters came out hot, knocking down several outside shots in the first half." said Coach Hansen.
7A 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 0 5 4 6 15
WMS: 28 8 12 2 50
In the 7th grade B-game, the Cats had a decent first quarter but lost the 2nd quarter 2-9 and went into halftime down 6-16. Points were hard to come by as the Wildcats could only muster up 3 points in the 2nd half and lost 9-31. Caven Martin finished with 3 points, Gaelin Mason-Schmidt & Joe Bull & Cooper Johns all finished with 2 points each.
"Caven Martin brought great energy off the bench and did a better job of looking for his shot. Cooper Johns is starting to get more comfortable in the offense and has shown a lot of improvement over the last two games. Trey Florio keeps getting better with more game experience and is starting to play aggressively on both sides of the floor" said Coach Hansen.
"We had a few boys missing Thursday night due to illness which required us to switch up our rotations a little differently. We struggled to handle their full-court pressure in both games" said Coach Hansen.
7B 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 4 2 2 1 9
WMS: 7 9 5 10 31
The Wildcats will host the Clearwater Indians on Monday, February 3rd with games starting at 5:00 PM.
