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 Athens, led by Matt Wendling and Ryan Freer, pulled away at the
end for a 64-54 win. Wendling and Freer had 27 and 26 points
respectively in the contest.
Coach Ryan Deibert shuffled the Toppers starting lineup a bit,
placing 6'5 freshman Peyton Taylor and junior Dalton Litterly in the
starting lineup. Athens is a very quick team with some height and
Mount Pulaski was doing its best to match up to that.
The Toppers jumped out to a 4-0 lead early on buckets by Matt Amidon
and Brayden Curry. Sophomore Nick Hanner quickly answered back with
a three and Matt Wendling started his scoring with two points to put
Athens up early 6-4. Taylor tied the score at 6-6 as he camped out
under the basket and was left alone for the bucket. Meanwhile quick
threes by both teams knotted the score at 9-9. Taylor again made a
nice move in the lane to tie the game at 13 apiece. With 2:17
remaining in the first quarter sophomore Brett Huff nailed a three
to give Mount Pulaski the 16-13 lead. Huff would find Michael Lowery
down the court for the open layup on the next possession and give
Mount Pulaski a nice 18-13 lead. It would not take long for Athens
to tie things up at 18-18 on a three by Ryan Freer. A buzz beater by
Brett Huff though would give Mount Pulaski the 20-18 lead at the end
of one quarter of play.
 The scoring remained pretty even in the second until a three by Beau
Collier would put Mount Pulaski up again 25-23. Wendling and Freer
put the Warriors back on top 27-25 with 5:44 left in the second
quarter. Beau Collier knotted the score at 27-27 as he was able to
make a move on the big men and get under the basket for two points.
A technical called on Mount Pulaski due to a player entering the
game who was not in the books led to Athens taking the 29-27 lead as
Freer connected for both free throws. Freer extended the lead to
31-27 on the Warriors' possession. Beau Collier was feeling it from
behind the arc and his three pulled the Toppers to within 31-30.
Wendling would extend the lead to 34-30 on his trey with 2:02 left
to play in the second quarter. The Toppers continued to play
extremely well though and the speedy Curry scored on a fast break
layup to edge Mount Pulaski closer 34-32. Lowery tied the score at
34-34 with under a minute to play as the Athens student section sang
Christmas songs in the background.
The student section was highly entertaining by the way and their
enthusiasm had both teams pumped up.
Another three by the Warriors gave them the lead again but Lowery
would hit a fade-away jumper with 12 seconds on the clock and both
teams headed to the locker room with Athens holding onto a 37-36
lead. Both teams picked up their intense game to start the third
quarter and at the 5:45 mark Lowery was good for two points and the
40-39 Mount Pulaski lead. As Athens kept scoring so did Beau
Collier. His three tied the game at 43-43 with 4:25 on the clock.
Lowery would foul Wendling as he was going for the dunk and his two
free throws gave the lead back to Athens, 45-43. A few possessions
later Wendling would be good for the alley-oop basket and the 49-45
Athens lead. 5'9 Blake Collier made a nice move under the basket
navigating his way through the big guys and pulled Mount Pulaski to
within two points, 49-47, as the third quarter came to a close.
[to top of second column] |
Wendling and Freer combined for the first five points of the fourth
quarter and extended the Warriors lead to 54-47 but the Toppers kept
hanging tough. Lowery hit a three at the 5:32 mark as Mount Pulaski
was edging closer 54-50. Athens however, ran off four unanswered
points to take a commanding 58-50 in the final minutes. Mount
Pulaski battled back as Lowery put back two off the offensive
rebound but by this time Athens had extended their lead to 62-52.
Once again Freer scored on a layup bringing his total points on the
evening to 26. Amidon would score the final bucket for Mount Pulaski
as the clock and the singing Athens student section wound down, with
the 64-54 win going to the Warriors, now 8-1 on the season.
Matt Wendling, who worked very hard on his game in the off-season,
was the Athens Warriors leading scoring with 27 points.
Michael Lowery led the Toppers with 15 points and teammate Beau
Collier had 11 points. The teams combined for 14 threes on the night
and treated the crowd to a just a nice evening of good competitive
basketball.
Mount Pulaski's record falls to 3-6 as they prepare to enter the St.
Teresa Tourney by taking on the hosts at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
On Tuesday night the Toppers will face Decatur LSA at 7:30 p.m. in
the tournament.
The tournament will conclude next Monday and Tuesday night as well.
Mount Pulaski scoring:
Lowery 15
Beau Collier 11
Curry 7
Taylor 6
Brett Huff 5
Matt Amidon 4
Blake Collier 4
Litterly 2
Athens scoring
Wendling 27
Ryan Freer 26
Eric Freer 4
Maxwell 4
Hanner 3
[Teena Lowery] |
