By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com

STERLING = After losing an early game lead, the Moundridge boys fought back and rallied late but still fell short on Tuesday on the road at Sterling, losing by two-points, 49-47.

“This one stings a bit,” explained Wildcat head coach Vance Unrau. “Every one of our guys had a chance to make a difference on the outcome tonight. We did not close out on their best shooter well enough, especially in the first half. We also could not come up with a rebound which led to key second chance points for Sterling.”

The Wildcats broke out early and had a four-point, 14-10 advantage at the end of the first quarter before falling behind by two, 26-24, heading into the halftime break.

After Sterling pushed their lead out to seven by the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats rallied hard but came up two points short at the end.

Moundridge was unable to shut down Zach Surface for Sterling as he connected on six three-pointers and led all scorers with 21 points while Sterling also dominated in the paint by out rebounding the Wildcats 25-9.

Individually for Moundridge, Logan Churchill led the offense with 17 points while Landon Kaufman reached double digits as well with 11.

Coach Unrau concluded his reflections by adding, “these types of mistakes can’t happen in close games, and we will need to learn from and correct them so that we can be playing the second week of March. I’m still incredibly optimistic and love this group of guys as they have so much potential and a lot to play for going forward.”

Coming into the night the Wildcats were ranked #9 in Class 2A, but with the loss they drop to 11-3 overall as they prep for cross-county rival Inman who comes to town on Friday ranked #7 in Class 2A. Friday will also be Moundridge’s homecoming.

SCORING:     1          2          3          4          FINAL

WILDCATS     14       10       9          14       47      

Sterling          10       16       14       9          49

TEAM STATS =

MOUNDRIDGE WILDCATS = FG 18-42 (42%); 3-PTR 6/19 (31%); FT 5-9 (56%); AST 15; REB 9; TO 5; STLS 5; BLK 4; PF 16.

Sterling = FG 15/31 (48%); 3-PTR 8/19 (42%); FT 11/21 (52%); AST 12; REB 25; TO 5; STLS 3; BLK 1; FP 15.

MOUNDRIDGE WILDCATS INDIVIDUAL SCORING & STAT LEADERS =

Scoring (47 total points) = Logan Churchill – 17; Landon Kaufman – 11; Joseph Lane – 6; Joseph Schrag – 5; Henry Hecox – 5; Barrett Moddelmog – 3.

3-Pointers Made (6) = Lane – 2; Churchill, Schrag, Hecox, Moddelmog – 1.

Assists = Kaufman – 5; Schrag, Hecox – 3; Churchill – 2.

Rebounds = Schrag, Moddelmog – 3.

Steals = Kaufman – 4.

Blocked Shots = Churchill – 2.