MSM: Better late than never for Dalton Newsome...

By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com

I never go into a game rootin’ for a player or team. But since this was my first time to see the Mt. St. Mary’s boys basketball team, I was hoping to see why they’re so good.

Down the stretch, it was the team’s heart and its star waking up that showed me just why the Rockets will be a contender for the 3A title.

Mt. St. Mary’s 41, Heritage Hall 37 (Boys)

For three quarters, senior night could not have been any worse for Dalton Newsome. The MSM star was bottled up and was ineffective.

But he didn’t panic, and the Rockets didn’t panic, a staple of Lenny Hatchett’s club.

Newsome remained patient and found other ways to contribute (couple of big boards, a huge assist to Jeremy Wagner for a 3 to make it 35-31).

And then he found his rhythm and scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter, including icing the game at the free throw line (though he admitted to being nervous at the charity stripe).

I was impressed how he let the game come to him. Even though he hadn’t scored, he also didn’t force crazy-looking shots. Everything was in the flow of the game.

The Rockets received a big lift from Wagner, who connected on four 3s for his 12 points while Vincent Mason helped with 10 points. Wagner really got the team out of an early funk as it was 6-0 Heritage with half the first quarter already done before Wagner nailed back-to-back 3s.

Heritage Hall did so many right things in this game but didn’t finish. That’s three games (Kingfisher, Casady and MSM) where victory was there, but the Chargers couldn’t pull it out in the end.