Fairview Outlasts Mountain Range

BOULDER—The second seed Fairview Knights hosted the six seed Mountain Range Mustangs Tuesday night in their sweet sixteen match-up. Both teams had numerous spurts of scoring accompanied by good man-to-man defense and perimeter shooting. In the end Darragh O’Neill and his fellow Knights simply outplayed their competition.

In their Feb. 12 regular season meeting, the Knights won handily 68-49, but the Mustangs had plans to avenge their loss. Mountain Range coach Jim Mason’s plan to win was simple, “Take care of the ball and play hard.”  Late into the second quarter the Mustangs had a chance.

But O’Neill came out red hot with two three-pointers to start the game and finished the first quarter with 14 points en route to the Knights 18-15 lead. The Mustangs stayed close in the first quarter of the game with high percentage shots on the interior by Edgar Crockett and Nick Kuhl.

Mountain Range caught a break seconds into the second quarter when O’Neill got his second foul and had to sit out the rest of the first half.

But the Knights responded to the adversity by playing an intense press defense that created turnovers and fast break opportunities. Soon the Knights stretched their lead to 11 points with less than five minutes remaining until halftime.

When the game was almost out of hand, the Mustangs came roaring back. Mountain Range began to take on Fairview’s trap and found the open man with good passing. “They had great resolve to come back in that second quarter,” said Fairview coach Frank Lee. “They spaced us really well and didn’t panic in the trap. When we trap that is (freeing) someone up and they took advantage.”

Mountain Range’s Taylor Maunu, Mitch Castillo and Derrick Valdez connected on three three-pointers to go on a 10-3 run, which left the score at 31-28, Fairview at halftime.

At the start of the third quarter both teams started cold from outside. After Knight Michael Melillo’s post move basket and an answer post move basket from the Mustangs’ Kuhl as well as three made free throws from Castillo, the game was tied at 33-33.

That is when Darragh O’Neill heated up again and ignited the Knights to victory.

A quick head fake by O’Neill created a foul and two made free-throws. On the ensuing Mountain Range possession O’Neill stole the ball that led to a Knights lay up and after two empty possessions per team he dove for the ball and got another steal.

Mountain Range tried to game plan for O’Neill, but both coach and player seemed to know it was too much to handle. “He is just hard to guard. We were trying to keep him from scoring too much, but we couldn’t match him,” Mason said.

 At halftime O’Neill and rebounding were the topics of mid-game adjustments that didn’t come to fruition. “We wanted to rebound better but Kenny Bell did a great job and we really needed to contain Darragh but that clearly didn’t happen,” said Maunu, who finished with 15 points.

As the third quarter continued jump shots were not falling for the Mustangs, which led to the fast break style that the Knights are used to. Some quick baskets off the break increased the lead to 41-35.

The Mustangs continued to fight as Maunu made two free throws with 15 seconds left in the quarter. As if to refuse to relinquish the momentum O’Neil placed a dagger in the Mustangs with a beautiful head fake and seven foot jumper to take a 49-39 lead into the last quarter.

The Mustangs began to play with desperation and began to shoot quick three-pointers with little success. Fairview got lay-ups and short jumpers to continue to increase its lead.

After a put back basket from Kuhl, who finished with 17 points, the Knights spread the floor on offense and began to delay with a 5:30 left and a 57-43 lead.

 As the Knights continued to out-rebound the Mustangs late in the game, second chance points and free throws finally put the game out of reach. To make matters worse the Mustangs continued to intentionally foul O’Neill down the stretch. “Our shot selection late in the third and fouling Darragh buried us. We were fouling the wrong guy,” Mason said.  

The end score of 74-61 advanced the Knights to the Great Eight and a match-up with the Grandview Wolves.

Lee said the Mustangs were a tough test for his team. “They are a great team and they definitely got better than the last time we saw them,” he said. “They’re also extremely young—next year they are going to be scary.”

Boxscore

Checkout the updated brackets.

Contact the writer at scowhick@milehighhoops.com