'Stangs grind it out against Raptors
Coach Cawley: "Part of this is surviving and advancing."
It wasn’t pretty and definitely difficult to watch for long stretches, but there was no whining by Mullen.
No, the Mustangs did more than enough to run over Eaglecrest 59-37 on Monday at Hutchison Fieldhouse. While their Centennial League victory may have been a little rough, the key word in the sentence is victory.
“At this point in the season,” Mustangs head coach Frank Cawley said, “we’ll them any way we can get them. Part of this is just surviving and advancing.”Mullen moved to 13-8 overall, 8-4 in league. It’s the program’s most overall victories since going 18-9 in 2014-15 and matches the eight league victories it had that same season. With two games to complete the regular season as well as the Class 4A playoffs, the Mustangs are sitting highly, but are hardly satisfied.
Even better, Tuesday marked the return of 6-foot-2 freshman Imani Perez, who was out while following concussion protocol after taking an elbow in the face and across the top of her nose early in a home game against Cherokee Trail.
“It was really nice to have Imani back,” Cawley said. “She really changes everything for us.”
Perez played well, scoring a team-high 13 points and adding five rebounds, and seemed relieved to be back in action.
“It feels really good to be back, but I was kind of nervous,” she said. “I don’t know why. Being out of practice and it was hard watching … we went over things and I kind of forgot some of them. But I’m feeling good.”
The Mustangs had a lethargic first quarter, grabbed command by halftime, and withstood a third-quarter move by the Raptors (6-15, 2-10) before pulling away again over the final 8 minutes.
Sophomore point guard Megan Pohs added 12 points, including a couple of 3-pointers that kept the momentum going Mullen’s way, and freshman Gracie Gallegos contributed 10 points. Ten Mustangs scored.
Smoky Hill will visit the Mustangs on Wednesday and the regular season will end on Friday with a matchup at Overland. Both are league games and the Mustangs are trying to clinch third place in the Centennial. Cherry Creek and Gandview sit atop the group at 11-1 and Arapahoe is one game behind the Mustangs.
Cawley said his group needs to “work on not depending on (Pohs) too much,” but the main theme will be, he added, “just trying to finish strong and we need to work on getting that first-round bye (in the 4A playoffs).
MULLEN 59, EAGLECREST 37
Eaglecrest 4 6 13 14 -- 37
Mullen 9 14 13 23 -- 59
Eaglecrest – Ross 2 3-3 8, Turner 3 1-2 8, Thornton 0 0-0 0, Unrein 1 0-0 3, Coleman 6 4-6 16, Dixon 0 0-0 0, Lewis 1 0-0 2, Back 0 0-0 0, Blethen 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 8-11 37.
Mullen – Pohs 4 1-1 12, Martinez 2 0-0 4, Gallegos 4 1-2 10, Van Horn 1 0-0 2, Im. Perez 5 3-4 13, Dominguez 3 1-2 7, Il. Perez 1 0-0 3, Hart 0 0-0 0, Medina 0 0-0 0, Elges 0 0-0 0, Oswald 1 0-1 2, Webster 1 0-0 3, Loukopoulos 1 0-0 3. Totals 23 6-10 59.
3-pt. goals – Gallegos, Ross, Turner; Pohs 3, Gallegos, Loukopoulos, Il. Perez, Webster.
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