Mott-Regent prevails as New England’s rallies fall short
MOTT — Every second counts. New England senior Kaine Hanson had a half-court shot rattle in and out as time expired and the Mott-Regent boys basketball team held on for a 68-66 win on Tuesday at National Guard Armory Gymnasium.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Chad Mosbrucker
MOTT — Every second counts.
New England senior Kaine Hanson had a half-court shot rattle in and out as time expired and the Mott-Regent boys basketball team held on for a 68-66 win on Tuesday at National Guard Armory Gymnasium.
“It was a battle about the last two minutes,” Mott-Regent head coach Wayne Heckaman said. “We had our chances to seal the deal, but we kept giving them opportunities to come back in the game.”
The Tigers (7-3, 0-1 District 13) were the comeback kids for a majority of the game. However, the Wildfire (5-3, 2-0 District 13) responded to most of their rallies.
“Coming out and beating New England is huge,” Mott-Regent senior McCahen Schweitzer said. “It keeps us undefeated in the district and they are one of the top teams.”
The Tigers’ key to staging comebacks was 3-pointers.
Clarence Binstock led New England with 27 points and had six 3’s, including his last that pulled New England within one, 67-66, in the closing seconds. Hanson added 14 points with three 3’s.
“When the game started, we didn’t have too good of looks,” Binstock said. “We started to go inside and our bigs kicked it out and we had some wide-open looks. We just capitalized on them.”
However, New England head coach Luke Powers said his team took too many shots around the perimeter.
“We aren’t going inside enough,” he said. “They are a little bigger than we are. We fell behind, but you’ve got to give the kids a lot of credit. They fought back and hung in and made it interesting.”
Mott-Regent didn’t waste any time, jumping out to a 17-10 lead in the first quarter. The Wildfire led 19-15 after the first and Schweitzer powered the offense with 14 points on three 3’s.
“We’ve played three home games so far and we’ve come out to good starts,” he said. “We feel like that crowd is behind us.”
New England started its comebacks with about four minutes left in the second quarter. It overcame a nine-point deficit to tie the game 35-35 going into halftime.
“We wanted to chip away at their lead and we managed to chip away at it,” Binstock said. “We just wanted to make the statement that we aren’t going to go away easy.”
However, the Tigers let a key opportunity slip through their fingers at the end of the third quarter.
With one-tenth of a second left, New England inbounded the ball to Nick Wolf, who tossed up a shot and was fouled by Zentner.
Tayloe Zentner was then charged with a technical foul, giving Wolf and Binstock each two free-throw attempts.
They missed all four.
“We just didn’t capitalize on opportunities,” Powers said. “You can’t do that, especially on the road. We have to come in and take care of business.”
It gave the Wildfire a 53-45 lead going into the fourth quarter.
New England’s bright spot to start the game was Wolf, who finished with 14 points.
Wildfire senior center Nate Fries tallied two points in the first half, but controlled the third quarter to finish with 13 points.
Mott-Regent had five players score in double figures, including Chad Mosbrucker and Jonah Honeyman with 12 points each and Zentner with 11.
“Nate not scoring a lot is kind of our fault,” Schweitzer said. “We might be shooting a little bit too much. Coach addressed it at halftime, that if we don’t get the ball down low it could be an ugly game.”
Powers was pleased with how senior Devin Plaggemeyer was able to contain Fries in the first half.
“Nate (Fries) is a real athletic player and he’s a strong kid,” Powers said. “You aren’t to completely stop him, but did a nice job of containing him.”
Mott-Regent hosts fifth-ranked Beulah on Saturday, while New England hosts No. 8 New Town on Friday.
“We’re sitting pretty good,” Heckaman said. “A win like this is just another win for us. We’ve got to continue to build.”
NE 15 35 45 66
MR 19 35 53 68
NE: Clarence Binstock 27, Kaine Hanson 14, Nick Wolf 14, Levi Hollinger 7, Austin Maershbecker 2, Devin Plaggemeyer 2.
MR: McCahen Schweitzer 14, Nate Fries 13, Chad Mosbrucker 12, Jonah Honeyman 12, Taylor Zentner 11, Jacob Greff 6.
3-pointers: NE 11 (Binstock 6, Hanson 3, Hollinger 2), MR 6 (Schweitzer 3, Ta. Zentner 1, Fries 1, Mosbrucker 1). Free throws: NE 13-19, MR 12-22. Total fouls: NE 22, MR 17. Technical fouls: MR Taylor Zentner. Records: NE 7-3, 0-1 District 13; MR 5-3, 2-0 District 13.
Tags: new england tigers, high school basketball, mott-regent wildfire, sports, basketball, preps
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