Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Midway through the fourth quarter, the game was there for the taking for Western Boone. Leading 43-41 with 4:56 remaining on their home court, the Stars seemed ready to snap a three-game losing skid and head into the sectional with some momentum. Fountain Central had a different plan. The Mustangs went on an 11-1 run over the next four minutes, and spoiled the Stars' regular season finale 57-50. "They did a really good job of switching up their defense, and with that we were hesitant in what offense to be in," Western Boone head coach Jason Smith said. "We decided on our zone offense, and we weren't getting the movement we were supposed to. That's on me, we went with the wrong offense there." During the stretch, the Stars went empty on six of seven possessions, with the other being split free throws from Quinn Westerfeld to make it 48-44. By the time the Stars got a Luke LaGrange 3 with a minute remaining, the deficit was eight with little time to play. The Stars shot 48% from the field and hit eight 3-pointers, but turned it over 16 times in the contest. "We hadn't seen them trap out of the 1-2-2 any, but we knew they had a bunch of different defenses," Smith said. "We were just struggling with movement, no matter what they ran. We will try to get it fixed before the sectional." Outside of the turnovers, rebounding was a big issue for the Stars in the fourth quarter. During the decisive 11-1 run, the Mustangs out-rebounded the Stars 6-2, including a possession in which they grabbed three offensive rebounds, that allowed them to push it to a two-possession game. Western Boone was out-rebounded 30-26 in the game, the 12th straight game they were out-rebounded by an opponent. "In the fourth quarter, we were so focused on going (up the court) before we had the ball," Smith said. "Guys were leaking out and others were focused on grabbing it and dribbling to quickly so we would lose it. We want to play fast, but we have to make sure we secure the ball first." Western Boone got off to a slow start, falling behind 10-2, but closed to within 18-15 by the end of the first quarter. In the second, they pulled ahead 29-25 and led 38-36 after three. The game got tied at 41 early in the fourth quarter, before Tristyn Faulk put WeBo up two with 4:56 to play. Faulk led WeBo with 16 points and nine rebounds. Quinn Westerfeld had nine points and seven rebounds, while Jaden Latham had eight points. The Stars are off until Tuesday, when they travel to Delphi to open sectional play. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. "We said in the locker room, we are 0-0 now and it's a clean slate," Smith said. "We sputtered to the finish line in the regular season, but we can turn it on again in the sectional. It's a winnable sectional. We had the exact same record last year and got a sectional championship. We are reminding the guys of that and that we are fully capable of doing it again and going back-to-back." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.