Staff Reports
The Hornets’ wheels fell off in the second half of Friday’s game at Magnolia West. Ahead 37-29 at the break, the Huntsville boys got outscored 38-20 in the second half and lost to the Mustangs 67-57.
Huntsville dropped to 9-2 in District 18-4A play and 18-14 on the season. Magnolia West improved to 6-5 in district play and 18-9 overall.
“They had two kids who were on fire,” Hornets coach Larry Carlson said of the Mustangs. “They just couldn’t miss.
“Our man-to-man defense was probably as bad as it’s been all year, and a lot of that is a lack of discipline. We were being lazy when guys got the ball near the basket, we were giving up the baseline and buying head fakes. All of that has to do with discipline.”
Huntsville, which raced past the Mustangs 72-47 in the teams’ first meeting last month, got 18 points from senior Jeremy Laday on Friday. Senior Marvin Dunbar added 10 more.
Matt Egger poured in 27 points for the Mustangs, who remained in the thick of the race for one of the district’s four playoff spots. Gerry Cottle and Andrew Ellwanger added 13 points apiece for Magnolia West.
“It wasn’t good,” Carlson said. “And it wasn’t all because we played so poorly. Magnolia West also played extremely well. That’s a team that beat Brenham last year. They’ve got some shooters.”
The Hornets come back home Tuesday to play Willis in a big district game. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
