When the shots stopped falling, the Muhls ‘stopped playing,’ says coach

Matt Flowers doesn’t want Muhlenberg to be the kind of team that lives and dies with the 3-pointer.

That’s a perilous tightrope to walk.

When Eric Branch came off the bench early in the first quarter Friday and dropped a couple of 3’s the Muhls were off and flying.

When the shots stopped falling . . .

“We stopped playing hard,” Flowers said. “We stopped playing physcial.”

The Muhls couldn’t consistently find the shots they like against a much longer Bonner-Prendergast team and struggled to score points, falling 71-51 in the opening game of the Hoop Group Reading Showcase at the Geigle.

The Muhls (3-1) led 13-9 after Branch knocked down his second ‘3’ and scored his 10th point in the final minute of the opening quarter.

The Friars (3-0) responded with a 12-0 run that gave them the lead for good. They were up by 11 at halftime and by as much as 19 in the third period.

They feature a front line that goes 6-8, 6-6, 6-4; they had an inch or two advantage over the Muhls at nearly every spot on the floor. That appeared to take its toll.

The Muhls hit nine 3-pointers but they couldn’t match the Friars in the paint or on the boards, where Prendergast had a 32-20 advantage. The Muhls managed just just four offensive rebounds.

Muhlenberg no longer has 6-6 rebounding machine Edwin Suarez, a two-time All-Berks pick. They don’t put anyone one taller than 6-4 on the floor.

Flowers doesn’t want to make that the issue. He said his team regularly beat longer squads during a successful summer season and they’ll do again this season.

His guys have to find a way to contend with what will be regular size mismatches against fellow Class 5A or 6A opponents.

“Their length wasn’t the issue,” Flowers said of Prendergast, “it was the pace. We played at their pace. We allowed them to dictate the pace. I liked the pace the first seven minutes. We were doing some great things. All of a sudden the shots stopped fall, and we stopped playing.”

Branch finished with a team-high 15 points but didn’t hit a basket after his 3-pointer midway through the second quarter. Xzayvion Robertson scored 11 and named Muhlenberg’s game MVP.

J’Daniel Mosquera, matched against 6-2 Reggie Selden Jr. much of the game, didn’t score in the first half and finished with six points.

Muhlenberg’s 3-point shooting was good enough (39 percent) but it made just 8-of-21 shots (38 percent) inside the arc.

“I felt we were off,” Flowers said. “We weren’t as connected as we usually are.”

No doubt the Muhls ran into a tough squad, one that’s loaded up to make a run at the Catholic League playoffs after a 10-11 season.

Kevin Rucker Jr., a 6-6 junior who played at Chester last season, scored a game-high 21 points.

Selden, who transfered in from Bishop Eustace in New Jersey, had 12 points and four assists.

Brady Eagan, a 6-4 senior, grabbed a game-high eight rebounds for the Friars, who also got help off the bench from 6-8 Nelson Lamizana, a transfer from West Chester Henderson.

	1	2	3	4	Final
Bonner-Prendergast	15	19	19	18	71
Muhlenberg	13	9	12	17	51

Friars(3-0)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Selden	4-7	4-5	0-0	4	1	12
Cooper	4-6	0-1	3-4	2	4	11
Eagan	2-6	0-0	0-0	1	8	4
Ketner	4-9	6-6	0-1	0	4	14
Rucker Jr.	7-12	5-6	2-4	2	4	21
Lamizana	3-4	0-0	1-2	1	2	7
Venditti	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Williams	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	2
Totals	25-45	15-18	6-11	10	25-32	71

Muhls (2-1)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Robertson	4-9	2-2	1-3	0	1	11
Mosquera	2-7	0-0	2-5	3	4	6
Archie	0-2	2-2	0-1	0	0	2
Alcantara	1-5	0-1	1-4	0	3	3
Adonis	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	2
Branch	4-9	4-4	3-5	1	6	15
Valentin	2-4	0-0	0-1	1	1	4
Towles	3-3	0-0	2-2	0	1	8
Collado	0-2	0-0	0-1	0	0	0
Miller	0-1	0-0	0-1	0	0	0
LeClair	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Zaballa	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Marte	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
McGovern	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	17-44	8-9	9-23	5	18-20	51

Turnovers: Bonner-Predergast 14, Muhlenberg 11.