Mustangs play tough
The current Laurel Highlands Mustangs, battered and bruised, nonetheless made the originals proud as they hung with highly-ranked and touted Hampton through the first half of Friday’s 78-62 loss in a non-section boys basketball game. That the Talbots won by a large margin didn’t brighten LH coach Rick Hauger’s night, but it didn’t dampen his spirits, either.
“We played a team that was ranked No. 1 in the WPIAL until their last game, when they lost and dropped to No. 3,” Hauger pointed out. “Our kids did an excellent job. Hampton had too much depth for us and they wore us down, but I was very proud of the toughness, heart and desire with which we played tonight.”
So, too, was the assemblage of older fellows gathered at one end of Harold “Horse” Taylor Memorial Gymnasium. Laurel Highlands honored its first boys basketball team just before tip-off. That 1966-67 team came out of the gates and won its first 23 games before losing in the WPIAL semifinals to Mount Lebanon in a triple-overtime thriller.
But the current team has had its troubles. The Mustangs fell to 6-8 on the season and along the way have seen three teammates go down with injuries. Senior Nick Thomas, who led the Mustangs with 18 points, suffered an ankle injury last night and may find himself on the sidelines with Eric Fudala, who is out for the season; Kaleb Ramsey, who may miss another week with an ankle injury, and Mike Iannamorelli, who also is injured.
Hauger’s starting lineup included seniors Thomas and Jon Eicher, sophomores Brian Grady and John Shull and freshman Ronnie Fudala. The Mustangs proved that the future looks bright, but the present isn’t all that bad, either.
“I didn’t like the match-ups we had against Hampton, but our kids did a lot of good things,” Hauger said. “We ran the floor nice and broke their press without much trouble.”
Hampton coach Joe Lafko, a Frazier graduate and a prolific scorer in his playing days, echoed Hauger’s sentiment.
“Give Laurel Highlands a lot of credit,” Lafko said. “They came out and played with a lot of intensity, they scrapped for rebounds and they hit some threes on us. In the first half, they gave us all we could handle. They did a good job breaking our press and scoring off it and they kept the tempo at their pace.”
The Mustangs enjoyed a 47-43 lead with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter, but the Talbots went on a 16-point run that carried into the fourth quarter and put them ahead, 59-47. From then on, it became a free-throw shooting contest and the Talbots won it easily.
“They made theirs and we didn’t,” Hauger said. Hampton made 14-of-19 in the fourth quarter and 25-of-33 for the game, while the Mustangs converted half of their 26 tries for the game.
Asa Braxton paced the (14-1) Talbots with 22 points, while Chris Tanski added 12 off the bench. Joe Cangilla had 11 and Bob Bartley and Cory McGinnis scored 10 apiece.
The younger Fudala was impressive in his first start. The freshman scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half.
The Mustangs return to Section 3-AAA action Tuesday when they host Ringgold.