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Fresh/Soph Stanton Tourney

The Stanton freshman-sophomore team played host to the first two rounds of their own tournament last Saturday. First round action saw the hosts matched up with Newman Grove. "We were able to use good ball pressure on defense to create a lot of scoring opportunities and transition offense, allowing us to open up a lead and get good minutes for our younger guys," said Coach Caskey, after the Mustangs jumped out to a 20-13 halfime lead and then used a 16-9 third quarter advantage to put the game away. The final was 43-29 in favor of the home squad.

A balanced scoring attack was led by Cole Beyke with 14 points, followed by Tucker Lanz and Blake Heppner with 6 each, Steven Peterson with 5,  and Justice Hahlbeck with 4. John Rusk and Tim Mendlik each had 3 and Adam Krentz chipped in 2.

In the semifinal round the Mustangs were matched up with a physical Pierce team. This was a game that featured hard nosed man to man defense on both ends of the floor for the entire game. "It took our kids some time to adjust to the style of play, but once we did and regained our aggressive mentality things picked up on the offensive end," said Coach Caskey. The first half ended with the visitors holding a 21-12 edge, but in the second half Stanton took better care of the ball and was able to cause some turnovers with timely full court pressure that led to some easy transition scores. Clutch free throws down the stretch allowed the home team to cap a 38-34 come from behind victory.

Blake Heppner led the scoring attack with 14 points, followed by Spencer Nikolite with 9, Michael Eberly with 5, Adam Krentz tossing in 4, and Justice Hahlbeck, Tucker Lanz and Steven Peterson each tallying 2. The freshman-sophomore team will finish its season this Saturday in the tourney championship game against Norfolk High. Coach Caskey said "This will  be the most complete team we'll face all year. We'll have to take care of the ball on every possession to give ourselves the best opportunity to win. If we can get a strong effort from everyone, we'll have a good chance to win. We want to finish a fantastic season strong and give ourselves some momentum as we head into the offseason, and this is a great measuring stick for our progress."