Mustangs girls fizzle late in rivalry

If there’s such a thing as a relatively big basketball game in December, Mullen girls played one on Tuesday night.

It came against longtime parochial-rival Regis Jesuit, was a matchup versus clearly the Mustangs’ top opponent to date this season and was accompanied by enticing classification flavor, the defending Class 4A champion Mustangs hosting the Raiders, regular challengers in 5A.

The end result was a 62-55 nonleague loss for Mullen at Hutchison Fieldhouse, a halt to its 11-game winning streak that dated back to the past season and the always popular teaching moment when matched up with a foe that has done it more than you and didn’t panic when it mattered.

Mullen dipped to 3-1 and Regis Jesuit is 2-0.

Ultimately, it was the Raiders’ Jada Moore and Avery VanSickle who did in the Mustangs – the two combined for 29 of Regis Jesuit’s 37 points in the second half. The Raiders also switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half that the Mustangs didn’t handle, but head coach Frank Cawley was sure of what he saw.

“I think what bothered us was the run with Jada and Avery,” he said. “Those two players said ‘Give me the ball.’ And they stepped it up.

”We were showing our inexperience. We’ll learn from it and it’s what we talked about before – it’s how we deal with adversity.”

Mullen led 37-25 entering the third quarter before VanSickle exploded for five of her eight 3-pointers. She ended with 26 points as the Raiders gradually pulled within the lead, grabbed it, then protected it. Moore had 12 of her 20 points in the second half, was effective on drives and got the ball to the open player.

The Mustangs made only 3-of-15 shots (for seven points) in the third quarter and suffered a rash of unforced turnovers.

“Kudos to Carl (Mattei, the Regis Jesuit head coach) and the Raiders,” Cawley said. “I think we had a little bit of a panic, and learned some things from our personnel and the substitution pattern, but I also think we need to get mentally tougher, and we will.”

Early on, there were several crowd-pleasing exchanges from the largest home gathering of the season to date and many of them went Mullen’s way. In particular, junior guard Elaina Martinez caught fire, canning four of her five 3-pointers, as the Mustangs made 9-of-15 shots on the way to a 26-point second quarter.

Martinez had a season-high 19 points and Megan Pohs added 15, all on 3-pointers (Mullen had 12 as a team). Gracie Gallegos had eight, Imani Perez seven and Alexa Dominguez six.

Cawley called the game and his team’s effort “exceptional” and added: “I don’t think we played just anybody. That’s a good team we played. We have a lot to learn and I think we will.”

 

Regis Jesuit – McHugh 1 0-1 2, VanSickle 9 0-1 26, Moore 8 4-6 20, Jones 3 2-2 8, McKenzie 2 0-0 4, Lord 0 0-0 0, Bachelet 0 0-0 0, Mulbarger 1 0-1 2, Jackson 0 0-0 0, Thomas 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 6-11 62.

Mullen – Pohs 5 0-0 15, Martinez 7 0-0 19, Perez 3 0-0 7, Gallegos 3 1-2 8, Van Horn 0 0-0 0, Dominguez 3 0-0 6, Webster 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 1-2 55.

3-pt. goals – VanSickle 8; Martinez 5, Pohs 5, Gallegos, Perez.