Mustangs take down Poth Pirates, 82-68

NIXON — Although the score indicated otherwise, the Nixon-Smiley Mustangs had to play focused all 32 minutes of play in order to knock off the Poth Pirates Friday night. Head coach Carlton McKinney’s Mustangs took care of business at home, beating the visitors 82-68 to remain in second place in District 27-3A.

“We really talked up about coming out focused and playing with a lot of energy,” McKinney said. “We knew Poth was going to be Poth. They’re a good basketball team, they’re going to play hard and we needed to take it to them to start the game.”

The start of the game showed off the Mustangs at their best as they began with a 17-4 run before the Pirates finally made back-to-back baskets.

Four different Mustang scored in the first quarter as they weaved in and out of the lane, finding an open player for the easy layup each offensive possession.

“That was so wonderful in that first quarter, majority of the first half,” McKinney said. “Everybody was sharing the basketball. It’s like catching it and passing it and cutting and screening and moving and you’re forcing the defense to actually defend and we’re at the rim.”

“When we have multiple scorers, especially double-digit scorers, it opens up the scoring [for other players].”

Up 38-16, fatigue started to kick in and Poth ended the half on an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 13 points. The Pirates continued that run through the start of the third as they got to the free-throw line a handful of times, going 5-of-8 on their run that cut the Mustangs’ lead down to single digits.

“We hadn’t been in enough close games where we don’t understand how important it is to ‘tighten the screws’ so to speak and do things the right way,” McKinney explained. “And then we started the third quarter a little behind, we didn’t have the same energy we did at the start of the game and let them get going.”

“They are not going to quit,” he continued, “[Poth will] keep coming at you.”

With the Pirates continuing to pressure the Mustangs, McKinney had to shorten his bench by playing just eight players that night.

“Ideally what we’d like to play is at least 10,” he said. “We’d like to be able to have at least four come in at a time so we can rest a group together. Right now it’s just a matter of them understanding what we’re doing. I think the kids on our bench have done a great job. They’ve stayed into games, they’re much more focused than they were last year and it’s just a matter of finding them minutes.”

One player McKinney highlighted was Treon Fatheree who came away with 22 points, just two behind Sam Moore.

Moore has been nursing an ankle injury the last couple of weeks, so with him trying to get back to where he is, the Mustangs needed other players to step up.

“Fortunately we had some kids like Fatheree who stepped up and made some big shots,” McKinney said. “Luis Limon [also] hit some shots.”

Limon came away with 11 points Friday night.

Moore stepped it up in the fourth, scoring Nixon-Smiley’s first nine points in the quarter. He finished that frame with 11 points to add to his 24 total.

“It’s just a matter of getting him back to the shape and conditioning that we need to get him in because we want to play at this [fast] pace and we need to be able to perform at this pace,” McKinney said.

One of the struggles the Mustangs need to clean up is on defense where Poth was able to take advantage of Nixon-Smiley’s man-on-man through screens and dump offs.

“What we do is we switch everything except little and big,” McKinney admitted.

Unfortunately, the Mustangs had a few miscues where they’d have a “big” or a forward guarding a point guard, causing a mismatch down low.

Although Poth was able to find their big, L. Gonzales, who led Pirates scoring with 20 points, the Mustangs were able to counter on the offensive end, matching point for point with the visitors.

After taking the 82-68 win, the Mustangs keep pace with Goliad who remain number one in District 27-3A with a 6-0 record. Nixon-Smiley stays in second with their 5-1 record.

“At this point in the year, you either get better or your get worse,” McKinney said, “you don’t stay the same and for us we have to get better.”

Their lone district loss was at Goliad against the Tigers. McKinney explained that they can’t be passive as they were in that loss.

“Goliad is a quality team but we didn’t play our best basketball there, so I’m really looking forward until they come back here.”

Before even preparing for that rematch, the Mustangs look to start their second half of district as they travel to Stockdale to take on the Brahmas (1-5). Tipoff is scheduled at 8 p.m.