Mattawan Improves to 4-0 With Win Over Mustangs

After a (10-12) season last year, the Mattawan Wildcats entered tonight’s contest undefeated at (3-0). Their opponent the Portage Central Mustangs under new head coach Casey Higgason entered the game (2-1) with that one blemish being Otsego on opening night.

Mustangs freshman guard Ben Johnson hit an early three-pointer to give Portage Central a 5-0 lead to start the game. Mattawan answered with a barrage of three-pointers, two by Connor Walsh and another by Will Kuiper, giving Mattawan a 16-12 lead after one quarter.

The second quarter was a low-scoring endeavor with Mattawan holding Portage Central to just two made field goals while the Wildcats took a 28-21 lead into halftime.

Portage Central came out of the half on fire, more specifically senior wing Nate Long who knocked down his first three shot attempts of the half to pull the Mustangs back within four points at 32-28 with just over five minutes to play in the quarter. Similar to the last game on Tuesday against Loy Norrix, it was Mattawan’s Noah Vanlaningham sparking the offense in the second half. Vanlaningham scored 15 points in the quarter on 5-7 shooting from the field as the Wildcats extended their lead to 48-34.

The Wildcats 14 point lead didn’t last very long with Portage Central junior guard Noah Swope scoring the Mustangs first nine points of the quarter, trimming the deficit to 51-43 with 5:10 left in the game. Mattawan was able to answer with frequent trips to the foul line. The Wildcats scored half of their fourth-quarter points at the line going 9-14 from the charity stripe in the final quarter. Swope eventually fouled out for the Mustangs with a few minutes remaining in the game as Mattawan put the exclamation point on a 66-56 win.

Leading the scoring for Mattawan was Connor Walsh with 19 points on 3-4 from behind the three-point line. Noah Vanlaningham added 17 points, 15 of which came in his third-quarter explosion. Ryan Kiesling also chipped in 11 points with another successful evening in the paint. Portage Central junior Noah Swope led the Mustangs with 16 points while senior Nate Long scored 15 points and freshman Ben Johnson added 9 points with three triples.