The Meridian Mustangs Varsity Basketball team is heading to the state semifinals after a close victory against the New Kent Trojans, 51-45. The team overcame an 11-3 deficit early and held off a late run by New Kent to win.
New Kent got off to a hot start, going up 7-0 early. The Mustangs fell even further behind to the aforementioned 11-3 deficit. However, they managed to rally late in the first quarter, and managed to go up 12-11.
A very strong second quarter from junior Marques Myles and the Mustangs saw them extend their lead to 12, leading 28-16 at the break.
The third quarter was largely uneventful, with the teams staying deadlocked. Just as it seemed the Mustangs were going to cruise to another victory, New Kent started to come alive. They hit several three-pointers in the fourth quarter, and on the rare occasion that the Trojans missed, they seemed to always get the rebound and bank in a layup. With less than two minutes left in the game, the Trojans had closed the gap to just two points, trailing 47-45. All the momentum seemed to have left the Mustang’s bench.
With a minute left in the game, senior John Lyman hit a massive shot to go up by 4, and junior Will Davis hit two free throws to put the game out of reach. After stopping the Trojans one last time, the Mustangs ran out the rest of the clock on their last possession to claim the win.
“The team played great in those final minutes. It really did seem like the other team was going to catch them, but they pulled it out,” junior Andrew Connor said.
“If we shoot the ball better from the foul line, if we finish some of those plays where we had an opportunity, we win the game by 12-14 points, but we didn’t, so being up two with two and a half minutes left and they’re really coming… We had a great possession late, John Lyman had a big bucket, we got a stop, and Will [Davis] hit his free throws. So, we did just enough. That’s what good teams do, it’s not always perfect, but we still find a way,” Head Coach Jim Smith said.
Coach Smith also commented on their struggles at the foul line and getting rebounds.
“12/23 from the line, we gotta shoot the ball better than that, and we do shoot the ball better than that…I don’t know if we got a little bit tired, or they got more of a sense of urgency, but in the third quarter it felt like they were getting every rebound,” Coach Smith said.
Lastly, Coach Smith revealed what he told his players during a timeout late in the game.
“It’s just one possession at a time. Let’s just get a good possession here. Spread ‘em out, get something going downhill, they fouled us four times, so at some point we were gonna shoot the double bonus. …It’s just a matter of being disciplined and patient enough to get to that point. Eventually, we found John[Lyman] wide open in the middle for an easy layup,” Coach Smith said.
With this win, the Mustangs move on and will play the Hopewell Blue Devils on Mar. 7 at 7:00 PM. The game is at Hopewell.
