03-15-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
PEORIA – The Mendon Unity Mustangs were in no mood to mess around on Saturday afternoon against Sesser-Valier.

After dropping a tough game to eventual 1A champion Mooseheart on Friday, Coach Keith Carothers had his team ready to play from the opening tap as they rolled to a 31-10 halftime lead and cruised home with a 59-43 victory to claim third place honors in the 1A finals.

Led by 6-foot-5 senior center Lane Davis, Unity finished its campaign with a “RUSH” at 21-12.

Davis scored 17-points and dragged down 11-rebounds in the win as the Red Devils had no answers for the postman.

Six-foot senior guard Alex Blickhan was also a thorn in the side of S-V, hitting for13-points and was part of a defensive unit that forced 24-turnovers by the Red Devils.

Eighteen of the turnovers were credited as steals by the Mustangs with Blickham having seven of those pilfer’s.

The defensive stand that Mendon Unity put on Sesser-Valier forced the Red Devils into a 15-of-51 shooting percentage and its extended perimeter “D” made the normally long-distance shooters for Coach Shane Garner in-effective.

Sesser-Valier finished 4-of-21 from the 3-point arc as they ended their season in fourth place and a 22-12 mark.

“They played excellent team defense and their ball pressure was fantastic. I thought their coach did a great job of calling for different stuff during the timeouts, with the traps and different things,” said Coach Garner. “They kept us off balance for most of the game and it created a lot of turnovers on our part.”

The game had just one tie, at 2-2 after Sesser-Valier’s Nick Marlo scored on a drive to the basket at 5:41 of the first quarter.

From then on, Mendon Unity out-gunned the Devils 12-3 and led 14-5 at the end of the first quarter.

A fast-break lay in by Dylan Shaffer, a 3-pointer and two free throws by from Will Klusmeyer gave the Mustangs their nine-point spread.

“It was huge for us (early lead) because our guys were pretty excited in the locker room so I knew we had the energy, we had the drive,” said Coach Caruthers. “A lot more than last night, we didn’t look nervous, we didn’t look tense. We came out the way we played the whole postseason. It set a tone for the rest of the game.”

Unfortunately for Sesser-Valier (2-of-13 from the field in the first period), the second quarter wasn’t any better than the opening stanza.

Dawson Moore, a 5-foot-5 sophomore guard, stepped off the pine and nailed a 3-pointer to being the second frame for Unity.

Davis scored two more baskets in the second quarter and his bucket in the lane with 1:42 remaining gave Unity a 25-10 lead.

A fast break score from Blickhan and two free throws by reserve Cory Miller gave the Mustangs a 21-point advantage at halftime.

The Red Devils hit just 2-of-8 shots in the second quarter (4-of-21 at the half) and they committed five more turnovers as they went to the locker room down big.

“We didn’t make a whole lot of shots in the first half and kind of dug ourselves into a big hole,” said Coach Garner. “Their defense just kept the pressure on us and took us out of what we normally do. They had an excellent game plan and I felt they had one of the better team defenses we’ve faced this year.”

To the Sesser-Valier credit, Coach Garner’s club made a couple of scoring runs in the second half.

After giving up a drive to the basket by Adam Donley for a 33-10 Mustang lead, Sesser-Valier went on a 9-0 run.

Tyler Baxter, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, hit a pair of shots.

His second shot was a steal and a fast break, which was followed up by a Jordan Gunter 3-pointer to cut the lead down to just 33-19 with 4:43 remaining.

However Unity took back the momentum with a 10-2 sprint to close the third quarter.

Blickhan nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing and Davis scored twice in the lane, including a conventional three point play.

“He is a very good post player and he does a great job with his back to the basket,” added Coach Garner. “Nick (McCarty) battled with him and did a great job. But he is tough to defend.”

When Shaffer added two more free throws, the Mustangs were up 47-25 heading to the final countdown.

One more 9-0 run by Sesser-Valier to begin the fourth quarter got some hopes up in the Devils’ fan base.

Gunter scored seven of the points and his trey from the left wing cut the Unity advantage 47-34 at the 6:05 mark.

But that was the end of the comeback road for S-V as Unity went on a run over its own to close the game.

Three of the baskets in the sprint were in transition off of Sesser-Valier turnovers.

Blickhan made back-to-back steals for transition scores that pushed the Mustang lead to 59-36 with 4:07 remaining.

The reserves soon hit the floor for both teams as the benches were emptied so the kids could get some time on the Carver Arena hardwood.

Klusmeyer finished with 10-points for Unity while Donley added eight and Shaffer finished with six.

The Mustangs held a commanding 48-33 rebounding edge and they survived 20-turnovers of their own in closing the 2013-14 season with a victory.

“They out hustled us in the first half but I was extremely proud of the way the kids came out in the second and played hard and played focused,” added Coach Garner.

Gunter and Baxter ended up with 10-points each while Marlo and Nick McCarty finished with eight and six points.

“We talked about only two teams going out with a win and that’s a pretty special moment. To go out with a win makes you feel a heck of a lot more happy when you’re saying good bye,” said Coach Carothers. “We knew that we had to come out and put last night’s game behind us to get the job done.”