By Graham Karr
On February 3rd, the Silver Lake Mustangs (9-8) took on the Shelton Bulldogs (11-7) for the first round of the Twin Valley Conference tournament. The Mustangs quickly fell behind to begin the game. The Bulldogs jumped out with a quick eight-to-zero lead. Finally, Jaxon tenBensel drained a deep three to get the Mustangs on the board. The score kept going, with the score being thirteen to five with four and a half minutes left in the first quarter. It seemed to be the turning point shortly after that because the Mustangs finished the quarter on a 16-0 run. This allowed the Mustangs to have a 21-13 lead going into the second quarter. In the second quarter, the Mustangs’ defense did not slow down. The Mustangs held the Bulldogs to 1-11 on second-quarter field goal attempts. The Bulldogs had four points in the second quarter, with only free throws and one basket. The Mustangs continued their offensive game in the second half, scoring sixteen points in the third and fourth quarters. The Mustangs also held the Bulldogs to only 10 and 9 points in the last two quarters. tenBensel hit a season-high 19 points to aid in the victory. Jack Reents and Beau Bonifas added 12 and 11 to the scoreboard. Reents tallied a double-double with 13 rebounds as well. Landon Duester dished out 6 assists.
The Shelton win advanced Silver Lake to the semi-final match-up to face the top-seeded Lawrence-Nelson Raiders (14-2). In the first quarter, the Mustangs held their ground and kept the game to only being down 12-7. The Mustangs’ offense in the first quarter started slowly. The Mustangs quickly fell to an 8-2 deficit. Shortly after, tenBensel hit a huge three-pointer that kept the Mustangs temporarily in the game. Bonifas also quickly followed with a floater for two. Throughout the first quarter, the Mustangs struggled mainly with fouls. They ended the quarter with four fouls, and Lawrence Nelson benefitted three points off free throws.
The next quarter, the Raiders picked up momentum on the offensive end. The quarter started with Lawrence Nelson quickly starting 7-0. This scorelessness was only broken by a free throw at 5:52 in the second. The Mustangs didn’t score until 3:19 in the second. It seemed like that was the main turning point in the game. By the time it took the Mustangs to score three, the Raiders had already scored fifteen. The quarter ended at 30-14.
The efforts of the Mustangs for the next two quarters were immense. They started by winning the third quarter by two and then lost the fourth quarter by two. At the end of the game, Duester had 14 points, and Reents added 10. The Mustangs finished the game with a loss at 58-42.
That Saturday, the Mustangs took on the Deshler Dragons (15-2) for the TVC third-place award. In the first quarter, it was a very physical game. Each team’s defenses were playing very well, and most shots weren’t falling. Three players from the Mustangs scored layups or close pull-up shots. One of those was Frank Thomas, who came off the bench and made an impact on defense and got a layup to lead the Mustangs into the 2nd quarter, only down two, and the score was 8-6.
Quarter two was not an easy quarter for the Mustangs. The Mustangs started with a heavy offensive side in which they scored six points in 2:40, while Deshler only scored 2. This led Deshler to call a timeout, and it seemed like momentum was leading towards the Mustangs. What happened after that was what seemed to consume any momentum that was leaning towards the Mustangs. The dragons went on a 13-2 scoring run and were blazing going into half.
The third quarter was an exciting and high-scoring one. With 5:17 left in the third quarter, the Mustangs cut the lead from 23-14 down to 29-24. Bonifas drained two threes, and Brody Knehans also made one from deep. At the end of the third quarter, the Mustangs compiled fifteen, which was by far their best offensive quarter. Although their offense was amazing, they also allowed the most points by quarter in the game. By the end of the game, the Mustangs lost 54-37 and took home fourth place. They battled hard and played immensely as a team, but their efforts came up short.