Hosting Flagstaff on Friday, Jan. 22, the Mingus boys basketball team learned a very important lesson in how important it is to play four good quarters. When the final horn sounded, inconsistency led to the Marauders being on the wrong end of a one-point final.
The Mingus offense was strong at the beginning and end of the game, bookending it with 15-point quarters. In the middle two quarters, the Marauders offense went stagnant, scoring a combined 10 points. That was enough for the visiting Eagles to first take the lead late in the first half then withstand a final Mingus run to hand the Marauders a 41-40 defeat.
In a one-point game, it could be argued that any number of things were the biggest deciding factor, but Mingus’ free-throw shooting, in particular, jumps out. The Marauders finished the game 4-for-22 from the free-throw line. During the second and third quarters, they were a combined 0-for-14 from the charity stripe. That caught the attention of Mingus coach Albert Rodriguez.
“We missed a lot of free throws and it really put a damper on our energy,” he said. “We had a lot of great plays, a lot of great looks. But really the difference was those free throws. We shot terrible from the free throw line. Well below our targeted percentage. We’re just not going to win games with that big of a gap from our expectations.”
Mingus senior Trey Peters, meanwhile, added that the team stopped moving the ball well, which contributed to the offensive stagnation. He also pointed out that foul trouble was a problem for the Marauders. Indeed, two starters, seniors Zach Figy and Devin Rodriguez, both fouled out and spent a lot of the minutes prior to fouling out on the bench.
“We just got away from passing the ball and moving the ball,” Peters said. “And it hurts when you get in foul trouble and some of your better players are out. We just need to be smarter on that end.”
Figy acknowledged that the foul trouble was an issue but also felt rebounding was an important difference in the game.
“I got in foul trouble early — I didn’t help out on that,” he said. “But we just need to grab rebounds. They were getting two or three shots every possession. We were getting one, maybe two. We’ve got to grab rebounds.”
Despite the loss, there were some positives for the Marauders. Junior Dante Gabaldon had a solid offensive effort, leading his team with 15 points. This included an eight-point effort in the fourth quarter to help his team get back in the game. Peters and Figy were the second and third leading scorers for Mingus, finishing with eight and seven points, respectively.
Another positive is that the Marauders stayed in the game, even as their offense went flat. After trailing for the entire third quarter, Mingus took a brief 29-27 lead early in the fourth quarter.
But after the game was tied at 31-31, the Eagles went on a 9-2 run. The Marauders closed the gap and even had the ball with a chance to win in the final seconds. But while they got multiple shots off, none were especially good and time expired.
That followed a similar theme to Mingus’ first game of the season, a 62-49 loss to Saguaro on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
“We did the same thing on Wednesday,” Figy said. “We kind of came back. There was a point when it was like 49-46, and then they took off on a run and hit a couple of threes. It was kind of the same thing here.”
“I’m not surprised,” coach Rodriguez added. “Our guys play hard. I never question their effort. I knew that they would keep fighting and scratching to get back into the game. That’s just who they are. But unfortunately we just needed more than that. It wasn’t enough to win.”
A pair of games await Mingus this week. The Marauders will host Bradshaw Mountain on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. and will go on the road to Bullhead City for a 4 p.m. game against Mohave on Saturday, Jan. 30.
The loss to Flagstaff moved Mingus to 0-2 and 0-1 in 4A Grand Canyon Section Play. The Marauders are hopeful that cleaner play will bring an improved record going forward.
“We were just sloppy again — this week we’ve been sloppy,” Peters said. “There are some things that we need to clean up and we should be good.”
