Battle of dogs goes to Mastiffs

After building strong lead, Decatur falls behind, loses to Haas Hall Academy at Fayetteville

Photo by Mike Eckels 
Decatur varsity guard, Terry Kell, leaping above a tangle of players, launches the ball toward the net in the Haas Hall match-up in Fayetteville on Nov. 26. Kell made the bucket for two of his six points for the night.
Photo by Mike Eckels Decatur varsity guard, Terry Kell, leaping above a tangle of players, launches the ball toward the net in the Haas Hall match-up in Fayetteville on Nov. 26. Kell made the bucket for two of his six points for the night.

— The Decatur High senior boys’ basketball team traveled to Fayetteville to play Haas Hall on Nov. 26. The Bulldogs played tough throughout the night but fell short, losing 51-49.

The Bulldogs dominated the Mastiffs throughout much of the game due to the shooting efforts of Mario Urquidi and Meng Vang. Decatur went into the locker at half time with an 11 point lead, 34 t0 23.

At one point midway through the second quarter, the game looked more like a wrestling match then basketball. A Haas Hall player, entering the key, trying for a lay-up, lost the ball. Meng Vang recovered the ball for a brief second. Vang slipped and fell, beginning a sudden mad scramble for the ball. One group of three players dropped to the floor of the court, fighting for the ball, when it popped out to another group and anotherand another until, fi nally, at mid court, the referee declared a jump ball, giving possession to Decatur.

The Bulldogs continued to dominate through much of the third quarter leading by as many as 15 points.

Haas Hall, however, capitalized on several major mistakes by the Bulldogs late in the third period and gained the lead for the fi rst time.

During the fourth period, the lead changed hands several times before Decatur started a rally to pull ahead once more. Then with two minutes to play, the Bulldogs began to falter, allowing the Mastiffs to retake the lead. Decatur made several mental errors, turning over the ball several times and allowing Haas Hall to build as much as a 10-point lead. In the closing seconds of the game, the Bulldogs cut the lead back to four points.

With one second showing on the game clock, Haas Hall was hit with a technical foul for having too many players on thecourt. This sent Mario Urquidi to the foul line with three shots. He missed the first but connected with the other two, to make the final score 51 to 49 Haas Hall.

“We showed some good signs against Haas Hall, but you could tell we don’t have the experience yet,” John Unger, Decatur’s head basketball coach, said commenting on the Mastiff game. “We had a 15-point lead and need to learn how to build on that. I thought Haas Hall did a good job on making us make mistakes with their pressure defense, and our guards don’t have the experience yet to handle that. We will continue to work in practice and learn from our mistakes. I think this team has a great chance to be a very good basketball team this year. And, once we get more games under our belt, we will prove to be a very tough team. But, until then, we will continue to work hard at practice and get better each game.”

The leading scorers for the game were: Urquidi with 23 points, 7 fi eld goals, and 17 assists; and Meng Vang with 11 points, 3 fi eld goals, and 5 assists.

Other Decatur players scoring include Terry Kell-6 points, Kyle Shaffer-4 points, Pheng Lee-4 points, and Matt Lee-1 point.

The next game for the senior boys will be in the Decatur Tournament on Dec. 5, at 7 p.m., in the Lloyd Peterson Gym against the winner of the Exeter-Green County game.

Sports, Pages 12 on 12/04/2013