Cyclones win first game in close fashion over Mustangs

Friday night, the HCHS Cyclones boys basketball team opened up their season coming away victorious over the Shenandoah Mustangs, 58-55.
“Shenandoah improved a lot last year,” said Cyclone Head Coach Mitch Osborn. “They have a really good ball club, especially on their home floor. The young kids are good. It was definitely a very tough game.”
The Cyclones and Mustangs matched each other in points each scoring 15, and in the second quarter, the Mustangs were able to outscore them by one point, taking a 33-32 lead into halftime.
“I said we’re going to put a run together,” Osborn said. “We’ll step up and keep making plays and get some stops and then we’ll put a run together, which was did as we got up by nine.”
Junior Dallas McDowell led the way with 24 points on the night with 11 of those coming via the free throw. Senior Ben Leinen also came away with 17 points, while Senior Jozef Reisz had 11 points.
“Dallas did an outstanding job,” Osborn added. “He took 16 free throw attempts, and goes 11 for 16. It was good to see. Ben had some great post moves, and Jozef Reisz inside.”
The Cyclones were able to come out strong in the third quarter outscoring the Mustangs 18-12, followed by a close fourth quarter, but in the end the Cyclones hung on for the victory.
They return home Tuesday night hosting Kuemper Catholic. The Knights come in with a 2-0 record and are led by Griffin Glynn averaging 17.5 points per game, Dylan Schon averaging 6.5 rebounds per game, and Carson Kanne averaging 7.5 assists.
“You look forward to home games,” Osborn said. “Hopefully that’ll help us, and we’re going to need a big crowd. We’re going to need everything we’ve got because Kuemper Catholic is the real deal. They remind me a lot of our 2004 and 2006 teams when we won state titles.”