Mustangs Take it to the Wire Against Legacy

From the onset, Mullen looked like it was ready to roll against the Lightening, and it appeared the Mustangs were going to do it while riding the broad shoulders of Jordan Leslie and the three-point line.  Mullen was first to strike with a long-range bomb from Leslie, but he was not alone.  Brendle found the bottom of the net from beyond the arc as did junior Ben Medina.  Leslie contributed another trey and a 2-point bucket to lead all scorers at the end of quarter one with 8-points.  Sophomore Mason Bonner came off the bench to help with a bucket of his own to cap the first quarter scoring at 16-points.  Of Mullen’s six made baskets in the quarter, four were from beyond the 3-point line. Legacy answered with their own less-filling buckets within the arc but answer they did.  The Lightening manage one three-pointer, but the rest of their damage came from conventual buckets and a trip to the charity stripe to win the quarter with 19-points.     

 

The second quarter was close to even, but Mullen was able to reduce the Lightening lead by one going into the half.  Leslie added a three to his total, and Brendle hit a three and a deuce for five points in the quarter, but the buzz of the game came from off the bench.  Sophomore Kevin Lewis came into the game and drained a three, yet the man of the quarter was Mason Bonner.  He was high-point man for the quarter with seven, but it was his non-bucket that brought down the house.  With 4:16 left in the quarter, Mason took a pass at the top of the key.  The Legacy defense was packeted in underneath the basket, and no one came out to pick up the sophomore - ball in hand.  That was his invitation, and he took it.  With one forceful dribble to the hole, he took off and then elevated to the rim, ball palmed tightly behind the head, and then with thunderous power slammed it home.  The Mullen bench erupted!  The student body erupted!  Even some from the Legacy faithful couldn’t help themselves with audible wonderment.  In all the commotion it took a few moments to realize one of the officials had blown his whistle and was indicating Mason had charged, and the player-controlled foul erased the bucket.  No one seemed to care, though.  The thrill stirred the gym as play resumed.  The second quarter counted down to nothing, and the teams headed to their locker rooms with the Lightening up on the Mustangs 33-31.

 

 Mullen came out in the second half raring to go.  Buckets, long and short, came from the usual suspects with treys from Leslie, Medina, and Stewart and a couple of deuces thrown in for good measure.  The difference in this quarter from the first two was the Mustang’s ability to get to the free throw line where they went 6 of 8 .  The 3^rd-Quarter ended with Mullen up 50 to 46 and trending in the right direction.

 

The fourth and final quarter was the proverbial ‘wheels off’ scenario.  Baskets became non-existent for the Mustangs to the tune of five total points for the quarter on two made shots.  This allowed Legacy to easily move past Mullen and force the Mustangs to play catch up.  Despite the well drastically drying up, the Mustangs fought and maintained a chance right up to the final seconds, but the ball preferred to bounce around the rim instead of going in.  Victory just seemed to slip from their hands.  The 56-57 final for the home opener left the home team wondering what went wrong.

 

It's never easy losing the close ones, but there is no time to wallow in self-pity.  These Mustangs are at it again on Wednesday when they host Wheat Ridge High School at 7 PM, and then they wrap up the week with the battle of battles on Saturday when they travel to Regis Jesuit to take on the Raiders at 4 PM.  Time to make amends.