Eagles Fall Just Short Against Mustangs

The Springstead Eagles (5-6) fell short in a highly competitive home matchup with the Mitchell Mustangs (4-5) on Friday night. The back-and-forth contest saw the visitors take advantage of a few late mistakes by the Eagles to take the 51-47 victory at Greg O’Connell Court.

“Mitchell is a real tough team,” Springstead Head Coach Matthew McGarry said. “Similar to us, they played a very tough schedule early on, and it really prepared us for games like this. Credit to them. They hung tight. They made their mistakes, but they did a great job capitalizing on ours.”

Both teams were battle-tested and played like it that evening. When either side would commit a foul or miss a key shot, they would often answer back moments later, but there were a few moments that significantly played into the final outcome.

The home team started the night off strong with eight straight points thanks to two pairs of baskets each by Senior Forward Jamin Pond and Junior Forward Christian Cordero. Then, thanks to Mitchell’s defense and several close shots not finding their way home, the Eagles offense hit a dry spell.

Across the next 8:45 of game time, Springstead only knocked down a single shot and was outscored 14-2 in that time frame. Following this stretch, the home team was able to even the score at 21 just before half, thanks to eight points and a pair of steals by Senior Forward Zion McKenzie.

“We missed so many easy ones in that first half,” said Coach McGarry. “We definitely could have put ourselves in a better position, better than even going into half. That’s how the ball rolled tonight. We’re only as good as how well we can capitalize on our mistakes and other people’s, and tonight, we didn’t do a very good job.”

He had several critical scores in the second half that elicited thunderous applause from the home crowd. Sayre had contributed a trey seconds before his long two and another three midway early in the final frame to bring his team within a point of their opponent. His last points, a fastbreak layup with about three minutes remaining, nearly tied the game yet again, but it would not be enough.

“Ryan is a great competitor,” Coach McGarry said. “There’s some interesting stats on when Ryan plays well for us this year […] He’s at his best when he’s facilitating, creating steals, and getting to the free throw line […]”

Though he was unable to make many such contributions on Friday, several of his baskets were in key moments to give his team the lead or keep them close. Ultimately, it would be a couple of late mistakes that would doom their chances for a big home win.

After the Mustangs took the one-point lead with just under two minutes to go in regulation, the Eagles were unable to capitalize on their next possession. Then, a Mustang player tripped, losing the ball out of bounds with 50 seconds remaining.

A five-second violation by the Eagles on an inbound pass gave the ball right back to the visitors. Then, getting called for a travel down three with 11 seconds left effectively ended the Eagles’ hopes.

“That’s definitely a tough one to swallow, but hopefully these guys will learn because we definitely wanted this game,” said Coach McGarry. “Hats off to Mitchell. They did a fantastic job.”