MTZ boys basketball goes 1-2 last week

Carson Cuddy goes up for a shot in a 55-45 loss against Lincoln at home.

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion Braves went 1-2 last week. The lone win came against Mattoon in a 78-38 win. The losses came to Lincoln and Eisenhower.

Against Lincoln, the Braves trailed 29-19 going into the third quarter. The Braves began the third quarter when Sam Driscoll found Ethan Hamrick for a driving layup that became a three-point lead that cut the lead to 29-22.

Lincoln went on a 7-0 run that included two-point baskets from Aidan Gowin and Payton Cook and a three-pointer from Elijah Pollice that put the Railers up 39-22.

The Braves created their own fun when on back-to-back plays Jack Driscolll found Lyncoln Koester for two three-pointers to cut the Railers lead to 39-28.

Carson Cuddy nailed a three-pointer with a few seconds left in the third quarter to make the score 41-31 going into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Railers started off hitting their first two shots with a Gowin three-pointer and a Cool two-point basket to make the score 46-31.

Later on Ethan Hamrick found Cuddy for a three-pointer that narrowed the Railers lead to 46-34. Moments later Sam Driscoll made a steal and found Hamrick who nailed a three-pointer to cut the lead to 48-36.

Lyncoln Koester would mail two more three-pointers later in the fourth to cut the lead to single digits at 50-42. The Railers would hold on to win 55-45.

“We didn’t come with a sense of urgency,” Head coach Dale Schuring said. “We talked about it at halftime and even in the second half, we didn’t get to it fast enough. We’re not the most talented team, we’ve had good success. But when we’re not coming out being the aggressor and ready to go, we’re going to struggle.”

Against Eisenhower, the Braves lost 64-55. The Braves fall to 20-8 overall and 5-6 in Apollo conference play. The Braves will face MacArthur and Effingham this week to close out their regular season.

“I think what we have to go forward with is the lessons that we hopefully are going to learn from the last couple of games we’ve played,” Coach Schuring said. Taylorville out toughed us and they controlled the tempo and we didn’t come with a sense of urgency. Those are things we have to carry forward and be ready to go every night because with Huddle and all the film machines, everybody knows everybody and knows exactly what they’re doing. You got to execute, and you got to come and expect it to be a difficult 32 minute game where you gotta fight for every possession and every shot and and because we’re so young we may not totally understand that. We’re much farther along than we were a month ago and understanding and competing at that level for lack of a better word.”