Wildcats Win Back And Fourth Battle To Advance To State
Monterey battled back in the second half against Fayetteville, Monday night in Monterey, to win 44 to 41 and advance to the state tournament next week in Murfreesboro.
The Wildcats came out in a zone defense the entire first half of the game. Fayetteville had trouble finding open areas to shoot in the first two quarters as the Wildcats took a 19 to 17 lead into halftime.
However, Fayetteville found some open space to the ball in the third quarter as they hit three shots from deep. Fayetteville the outscored Monterey 18 to 8 and forced the Wildcats out of their zone defense.
Down 35 to 27, as the fourth quarter began Peyton West began to take over the game offensively. West scored 10 of his game high 25 points in crunch time when it mattered most.
Monterey amassed 17 fourth quarter points to Fayetteville’s 6 for the comeback win. The free throw line proved costly for Fayetteville as they only hit five of their 12 tries. Monterey shot slightly better as they hit eight of their 11 attempts from the stripe.
Silas Randolph and Kevin Borjas played big in the painted area as well all night. Each player closed off driving lanes to the basket continually throughout the night.
The win marked the 100th win for this group of seniors, the winningest in the history of Monterey High School and punched their ticket to the state tournament, next week in Murfreesboro.
