Final

 

Bolden leads Holmes with 24

Noffsinger leads MC with 19

Stats:

 

Covington 4

Arnold 6

Mullins 12

McClendon 11

Avery 15

Bolden 24

 

Noffsinger 19

Barrett 4

Hampton 5

Mitchell 2

Sailing 7

Stovall 3

Mcelwain 10

Drake 8

 

Muhlenberg Co

17-27 FG

6-16 3FG

7-10 FT

 

Holmes

24-34 FG

5-15 3FG

10-11 FT

Long bus ride for the dogs, glad they got the win, looks like they made there free throws tonight.

Bolden hit a couple of threes down the stretch that finally broke the game open for Holmes. Muhlenberg was up 23-20 at halftime.

Out of the gate the Bulldogs looked to be on fire, and had me believing that you could start saying their name in the same breath as other top 9th Region teams, however in short order for the remainder of the first half their shots just would not drop, allowing the never say die Mustangs of Muhlenberg County an opportunity to charge on back taking a 3 point lead into halftime.

 

Two quick fouls on Bolden sending him to the bench early also seemed to change the dynamic flow of their game, and although the Dawgs are no one trick pony, his presence on the floor was sorely missed.

 

Those thinking that this is not a quality Holmes teams like we've come to expect can put those fears to rest for they do have a solid bunch that when clicking on all cylinders can be a force to be reckoned with. They're just going to have to be more consistent and learn to bring it for an entire game. They do get well balanced scoring which can be demonstrated by decent averages throughout the starting 5.

 

More than anything their strength is their dynamite speed, and if they can capitalize more often while beating teams to the basket they'll be hard to beat. Sometime their speed however proved to be a setback when it was executed a bit too wildly. I was impressed with their offensive rebounding which allowed them second chance points. They play well as a team and seem to have good instincts with each other.

 

They've gained some good experience of late by playing solid teams in the recent holiday tourneys, and I feel they're in a good position to show how they've grown and now make their move for the remainder of the regular season, enabling them to legitimately toss their hat in the 9th Region ring.

Avery had 4 nice dunks in this game including 2 on back to back possessions in the first qtr to start the game and two really nice baseline dunks in the 4th qtr on back to back possessions.

 

Bolden also had a two hand oop dunk off a lob from McClendon.

 

As stated, Holmes jumped out to a big lead early but MC was able to make a comeback with Bolden going to the bench early 2nd qtr with 2 fouls....,McClendon would follow shortly after and MC made a comeback to take the lead after Noffsinger got a lay up at the buzzer to end the 1st half.

 

Holmes simply wasn't hitting shots the first half with those two out. They started 1-10 from outside but finished 4 for 5 in the second half which allowed them to attack the rim and get easy baskets.

 

For MC, Noffsinger is a nice player. They are undersized but play very hard.