Sachse junior Matthew Huggins looks at the basket before he takes a free throw during the first half of a District 9-6A boys’ basketball game against North Garland on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Hudgins scored 21 points for the Mustangs in a dominant 75-46 home triumph. Photo by Tina Lopez / C&S Media
By David Wolman
After watching his Sachse boys’ basketball team put up just 45 points in a 65-45 loss to Wylie East on Friday, Jan. 17, Mustangs head coach Zachary Mikesell wanted his players to get back to doing the little things better.
Sachse heeded the words of its coach, and the result was a huge bounce-back performance. Junior Matthew Hudgins scored 21 points and the Mustangs began to pull away from the Raiders in the second quarter, en route to a dominant 75-46 home win.
“We were due for a bad game,” Mikesell said. “We played well at Wylie East. But, unfortunately, they made a run and put us in a hole. And that’s a tough place to play. We knew coming back home that we were going to get a good North Garland team. We just did the little things better today. Defensively, we fought for rebounds. We got out in transition better. We got on the floor for some loose balls and we shared the ball well.”
Cold shooting dug Sachse into a 5-2 deficit midway through the first quarter. The Mustangs made just one of their first six shot attempts despite generating multiple second-chance opportunities as the result of grabbing several offensive rebounds.
Senior Austin Young helped to get Sachse out of its early funk. Young assisted on a layup by senior Maddox Belino with 3:42 remaining in the first quarter and then made a 3-pointer just 24 seconds later to give the Mustangs a 7-5 lead.
The offensive efficiency picked up big time for Sachse as the first half moved along and the Mustangs only continued to build on their lead.
After holding a narrow 11-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, Sachse began the second quarter on a 16-3 run, capped off by a basket by senior forward Ngozi Ofili for a 27-12 Mustang advantage.
Ofiili and junior Brayden Banks each finished with 11 points.
“I know that my guys are going to hit shots,” Mikesell said. “We kept getting open but weren’t hitting shots. We said at the end of the first quarter, ‘If we get open shots, let’s convert them.’ We did a good job of converting them in the second quarter.”
North Garland had the most trouble containing the hot shooting of Hudgins. Hudgins scored at all three levels with relative ease, which included four 3-pointers. He also sank a bad-angle baseline jump shot as time expired at the end of the third quarter for a 52-30 Sachse lead.
“He’s a tough kid,” Mikesell said. “We had a chat coming in about the things that he needed to do better than he did at Wylie East. I just thought that he responded, had the right mindset. We believe in him. We know that he can be a bucket, and he proved that tonight against a good team.”
With the win, Sachse (14-14 overall, 8-2 district) gained sole possession of third place in District 9-6A.
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