Mustangs' Clean Sweep Over Patriots

Photo by Rick Peck McDonald County’s Drew Harmon drives to the basket past East Newton’s Tyler Winsauer during the Mustangs’ 47-45 win Friday night at East Newton High School. Harmon’s jumper with under five seconds left lifted the Mustangs to their 17th win of the season.
Photo by Rick Peck McDonald County’s Drew Harmon drives to the basket past East Newton’s Tyler Winsauer during the Mustangs’ 47-45 win Friday night at East Newton High School. Harmon’s jumper with under five seconds left lifted the Mustangs to their 17th win of the season.

Drew Harmon's pull-up jumper with less than three seconds left in the game gave the McDonald County Mustangs a 47-45 win Friday night over the scrappy East Newton Patriots at East Newton High School.

"You have to give East Newton a ton of credit," said Mustangs coach Trent Barratt. "They came out and played great. Coach Fields' (East Newton coach and MCHS graduate Kyle Fields) teams play hard and have tough kids. They played extremely physical."

McDonald County led 45-40 with under a minute left before East Newton's Josh Harris hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 45-43 with 45 seconds left. After the Mustangs missed a pair of free throws, the Patriots' Ethan Heilig hit a jumper from the lane with 23 seconds remaining to tie the game.

The Mustangs held the ball until 11 seconds left before calling a time out to set up the winning play. Harmon took the inbounds and drove to the right before crossing over to the left of the lane and pulling up from about 12 feet for the winning basket.

"I am just glad to get out of here with a win," Barratt said. "Foul trouble really hurt us. When you are a starter down to start the game and two other starters get in foul trouble, that makes it tough."

McDonald County lost starter Dagan Stites due to an injury sustained in practice earlier in the week. The team was quickly forced to go even deeper into the bench when Daton Aubrey and Kole Keith both picked up two first-quarter fouls.

Billy Leach took over for Stites and played all 32 minutes. Eli Jones and Peyton Barton subbed for Aubrey and Keith while Noah Jones came in for Max Dill, who picked up his second foul early in the second quarter.

Despite the loss of most of the starters at various times, McDonald County never trailed but, after building nine point leads in the second and third quarters, could not put away the Patriots.

The Mustangs led 10-9 after Heilig hit both ends of a one-and-one at the end of the first quarter. McDonald County scored five consecutive points to stretch the lead to 22-13 late in the quarter before ending the first half with a 24-15 lead.

East Newton opened the second half by scoring nine consecutive points to tie the game with 5:24 left in the period, during which time Aubrey and Keith both picked up their third fouls. Dill answered with a three-pointer before baskets by Aubrey, Keith and Eli Jones got the lead back to nine at 33-24. East Newton cut the margin to seven at the end of the period when Dalton Zimmerman scored off an offensive rebound.

Dill opened the fourth with a basket, but East Newton scored the next six points to cut the margin to 35-32 as both Aubrey and Keith were called for their fourth fouls.

Eli Jones gave the Mustangs a five point lead with under six minutes left, but the Patriots cut the margin to one basket by Tyler Winsauer and a pair of Heilig free throws that came when Aubrey was whistled for his fifth foul.

Keith and Harmon both hit one of two free throws before Heilig answered with a pair of charities with 2:10 left. Harmon hit a free throw before Eli Jones had an offensive rebound and basket to put the Mustangs up by four with just over a minute left.

Heilig cut the lead to two, but Dill answered with a pair of free throws to get the lead back to four. Eli Jones then forced a bad shot and grabbed the rebound on the Patriots' ensuing possession before hitting one of two free throws with 53 seconds left for a 45-40 lead setting up the game's dramatic conclusion.

"I was proud of our bench," Barratt said. "They came in and played great. Eli did a great job on the boards and finished around the rim. I am just really proud of being able to fight adversity and get a win."

Aubrey finished with 11 points while Harmon, Keith, Dill and Eli Jones had nine points each to account for the Mustangs' points.

Heilig lead the Patriots with 23 points.

McDonald County improves to 17-5, including a perfect 5-0 mark in the Big 8 Conference. The win sets up a showdown with Aurora on Feb. 23 at MCHS with the conference title most likely on the line. The Mustangs hosted Providence Academy on Feb. 9 before traveling to Lamar on Feb. 15.

The McDonald County junior varsity and freshman teams also claimed wins over East Newton. The JV took a 47-24 decision. Scoring for the Mustangs was as follows: Barton 15, Grant Cooper eight, Cole DelosSantos six, Sergio Dozal and Andrew Landers four each, Noah Jones and Rustin Lett three each and Cooper Reece and Boston Dowd two each.

The freshman defeated the Patriots 46-25. Reece led the scoring for the Mustangs with 18 points. Rounding out the scoring were Dillon Aubrey with six points, Kirby Townsend and Francisco Ledezma with five each, Dowd four, Zack Woods three, Cris Monsalvo two and Izak Johnson two each and Blake Gravette one.

Cassville

McDonald County defeated Cassville 59-35 on Feb. 2 at Cassville High School. The Mustangs struggled to an 11-10 lead after the first quarter but stretched the margin to 22-13 at halftime and to 37-24 entering the fourth quarter.

The game was highlighted by a no-look, alley-oop pass off the backboard by Harmon to a streaking Aubrey for a dunk.

Nine of 10 Mustangs scored including Keith with 13 points and Aubrey with 12. Rounding out the scoring were Harmon with nine points, Stites eight, Dill and Eli Jones five each, Noah Jones three and Barton and Leach two each.

Sports on 02/11/2016