When play is stopped to clean up blood on the court … there’s a good chance it is a rivalry game between Mount Vernon and Solon boys’ basketball.
No. 4 Solon was more physical and pushed No. 10 Mount Vernon a bit, winning 58-45, Tuesday, Jan. 16, in Solon.
“A little bit physical,” senior Jackson Kutcher said. “You could tell it got into our guys heads a little bit. Some of our guys aren’t quite used to that level of physicality, yet. We just have to push ourselves harder.”
Mount Vernon (10-4) got out to a hot start, with Kutcher making four 3-pointers en route to a 16-5 lead.
But Solon kept grinding, and countered with a 22-3 run into halftime.
“I thought we came out strong, came out physical, but they switched to a zone and kind of zapped some energy out of us,” Mount Vernon Coach Derek Roberts said.
The Spartans scored the first two baskets of the second half, and the Mustangs never cut the lead to single digits again.
“They came out and executed a little better,” Kutcher said. “They went to that zone and we turned it over a lot. Right now, they are a better team than we are.”
Kutcher had 21 points, followed by Joe Briesemeister with nine, Cooper Parks with seven, and Kellen Haverback with six.
The Mustangs are still looking to make up for the loss of Joey Rhomberg, out with an injury.
“We can’t give up when things get hard,” Kutcher said. “Solon outfought us. We can’t shy away from it, we have to step up and hit them right back.”
The Solon hangover carried over to Friday, when the Mustangs lost a road game to West Delaware, 52-36.
It was the Hawks (1-11) first win of the season.
MV shot just 14.3 percent from the arc (3 of 21). Gabe Fairchild and Briesemeister led the scoring with nine points, each.
The Mustangs got back on track with a trip to Des Moines. Mount Vernon beat Bondurant-Farrar 65-61 in a matinee game at Wells Fargo Arena. The team then took in the Iowa Wolves game at night.
Mount Vernon senior Cooper Parks tries to hold onto the ball while under press from three Solon defenders including Jake Benzing (left) and Gehrig Turner (right) on Tuesday, Jan. 16, in Solon.