MHS - Men's Basketball / December 4, 2021 By Kasey McDowell
The Mulvane Men's basketball team opened up their 2021-22 season last Friday at Wellington. The Cats are coming off a 15-5 season from last year and returning a strong core of players, minus the leading scorer Trey Abasolo. The Varsity boys found themselves down 0-13 midway through the first quarter but found their footing behind a 12 point effort by senior Landon Coe and the Cats were able to tie the game up 22-22 going into the second quarter. The Cats were only able to muster up 7 points in the second quarter and went into halftime down 29-36. "I was proud of our guys for finding a way to correct a 0-13 start without a timeout from me," said Coach Abasolo. "That shows a lot of character and chemistry by our guys. They don’t need me to tell them the obvious, they are capable."
The Wildcats and Crusaders were all even in the third quarter 10-10 and the Cats had some work to do going into the 4th. That's where they went to work and were able to double Wellington's points 18-9. The Cats found themselves down by 8 with just a couple minutes left and were able to put on a strong defensive front and capitalize on some Crusader miscues, including two technical fouls, and were down just 2 points with 4 seconds left, and had the ball out of bounds down on their side of the court. The Cats had a long inbounds pass to Abasolo outside the 3-point line, who passed it over to senior Mason Ellis who put up a 3-point shot about 3 feet behind the 3-point line and banked the shot in for the game-winner as time expired.
The Wildcats were led by senior Landon Coe who had a monster game with 28 points and 6 rebounds. Senior Ian Comer led the Cats on the boards with 9 rebounds. "With all our turnovers and defensive lapses, they still found a way to compete on the road and never stopped," said Coach Abasolo. "That’s the sign of a good group, a good team. I was proud of Landon to step into a big moment take his place as our next “guy”. He doesn’t have to average 30 to be our guy, he’s just one of the toughest competitors we have and loves basketball and it shows. He also loves his teammates."
Var 1 2 3 4 Final
MHS 22 7 10 18 57
WHS 22 14 10 9 55
* Landon Coe - 28 pts, 6 reb
* Mason Ellis - 13 pts, 8 reb
* Ian Comer - 9 pts, 9 reb
* Kaiden Abasolo - 3 pts, 8 reb
* Sam Westfall - 2 pts, 3 reb
* Aiden McKee - 2 pts, 2 reb
* Tyson Lazier - 0 pts, 2 reb
Complete game stats can be found here.
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The JV had trouble breaking through the Wellington defense as they fell 40-58. Ethan Kasparek and Shannon Fuller led the boys with 7 points each on the evening.
JV 1 2 3 4 Final
MHS 9 13 8 10 40
WHS 17 16 12 13 58
* Ethan Kasparek - 7 pts
* Shannon Fuller - 7 pts
* Aiden McKee - 6 pts
* Jax Gerber - 5 pts
* Nolan Fevurly - 5 pts
* Easton Groth - 4 pts
* Braylin Coe - 4 pts
* Kayden Richecky - 2 pts
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The C-Team found themselves down 14-29 at halftime and had trouble clawing their way back into the game as they fell 34-58. Dylan Mow led the boys with 12 points on the evening.
C 1 2 3 4 Final
MHS 6 8 8 12 34
WHS 13 16 15 14 58
* Dylan Mow - 12 pts
* Nolan Fevurly - 11 pts
* Braylin Coe - 6 pts
* Kaden Palmer - 4 pts
* Brady Nelson - 2 pts
* Dylan Paul - 2 pts
* Kayden Richecky - 2 pts
* Chance Koester - 1 pt
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The boys will be participating in the Circle Thunderbird Classic next week and their first games will be on Monday, December 6th against Independence, JV at 6:00 PM and varsity at 7:30 PM at Circle High School.
