Lady Mustangs Thump Visiting Clarke 47-33

The Mineola Lady Mustangs continued their near-perfect march through the 2010-11 basketball season Friday night, with a decisive thumping of visiting Clarke 47-33 .

The Lady Mustangs (5-0, 11-1 overall, avg 50 ppg), faced a winless team that is going through what its coach describes as “a tough season,” cycled all its roster into the game, yet played true to form. They held the Lady Rams several points below their season average of 37 ppg, while nearing their own scoring average.

Facing Clarke was ample opportunity for the Lady Mustangs to expose the depth of their squad with the Medlock sisters Kalie and Kerri as well as Charlotte Renker and guard Kashanti Lawson.

“We have a lot of height and athleticism,” coach Denise Zunno said, “and Lawson is one of my strongest players, she leaves her heart out there. But we play like a team.”

Meaning by the end of the game, nine players had put points on the board. Kalie Medlock had 14, Renker had nailed 11. Heather Gessner and Krystie Kern had five each, and Christie Joyce contributed two baskets for 4 points. Adding on 2 points each were Lawson, Kerri Medlock, Samantha Venus and Tiffany Klein.

The rebound stats also showed plenty of breadth. Gessner, Kerri and Kalie Medlock led the way with five boards, followed closely by Renker and Lawson, with four.

In the first quarter, Clarke got out of the box quickly with a 3 pointer, hanging tough despite having their pockets picked by the quick handed Mineola team fully 6 times.

In the second, however, the Lady Rams – with only nine players suited up – began to run out of gas. Shot after shot failed to go down, while Mineola went on a 13-2 rampage.

Kalie Medlock and Lawson got things going quickly in the second frame, but it was Renker’s night to show that she’s got an aggressive instinct to go to the hole. First came a hook shot in the paint that made it 14-10, then, after a 6-0 run, she knocked down a set shot from about ten feet out, following up with a steal on the ensuing play, going end to end for a layup and the culmination of a 13-2 quarter that put the Lady Mustangs in command.

In an attempt to put some juice into the offense, the Lady Rams went to a 3 point game in the third quarter, to little effect, but ended up being outscored 15-5.

By the end of the third, the Lady Mustangs held a 24 point lead, and Zunno began mixing and matching bench players and regulars from her 12 player roster.

“We got everybody in,” Mineola head coach Denise Zunno said. “Players who don’t have an opportunity gave us some points.”

For a full eight minutes, Clarke and Mineola ran the floor with abandon, the margin closing with the Lady Mustangs substituting freely.

“These are tough girls, they keep pushing,” Clarke coach Suzanne Mooney said afterwards. “They don’t give up. This is a tough season – they want to be a good team and they’re getting closer and closer.”

Next up for Mineola is a home game on , a team they beat by one point in triple overtime earlier this season.