It was only fitting that Brent Wireman dribbled out the clock in Kouts’ 57-47 Porter County Conference win at Westville.
The junior guard scored nine of his 17 points in the fourth quarter Friday night as the Mustangs (4-2, 2-1) held off a comeback attempt by the Blackhawks (5-1, 2-1).
After Westville cut a 47-33 deficit to 48-45 and missed two potential tying 3-pointers, Wireman scored a basket with 1:52 left and added two free throws to make it 52-45.
Wireman shot 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final 1:30 and finished 7-for-8 in the fourth quarter.
“I’m one of the best free-throw shooters on the team,” he said. “I’m confident with the ball. I work hard on my ballhandling all the time. I knew I could handle the ball and make my free throws.”
Kouts coach Kevin Duzan praised Wireman.
“Brent Wireman handling the ball, phenomenal job under pressure,” Duzan said. “I credit ‘Badger’ (Wireman) because he’s handling the ball all the time. He was determined we were going to get what we wanted.”
The Mustangs received key contributions from several players, including Wireman’s younger brother.
Freshman guard Cale Wireman scored seven straight points in the third quarter after entering the game when twin brother Cole went to the bench with his third foul. Cale Wireman finished with nine points, all in the second half.
Tyler Heimberg had success inside with 11 of his 12 points in the first half. Jake Stewart added 16 points.
“It was a team win, no doubt,” Duzan said. “The boys played hard. They believed in what we wanted to do.
“We knew Westville was tough. It was their homecoming, they’re the defending conference champs. We just wanted to play hard and see what happened.”
Kouts led by as many as eight points in the first half, but held onto a 24-22 edge at halftime.
Westville had four possessions to tie the score before Cale Wireman’s burst extended the Mustangs’ lead. Brent Wireman’s feed to Stewart with 5:53 left in the game gave Kouts a 47-34 cushion.
But the Blackhawks turned up the intensity to draw to 48-45 with 3:03 left.
“It’s a game of runs,” Brent Wireman said. “We lost our composure a little bit. But we just had to stay poised and make the right decisions.”
Tyrese Walker and Cade Albers scored 17 points each for the Blackhawks.
“Execution,” Westville coach Nate Mrozinski said. “Our spacing was really bad. Shots didn’t fall, but that’s going to happen sometimes. We didn’t talk on defense, we gave up easy buckets.
“Attention to detail was not there. It was just a bad game. Hats off to Kouts — they played hard, they executed pretty well. But we have to play better.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff
