By TYLER HENRY
Little Apple Post contributor
On the heels of a monster win over Wamego last week, the Rock Creek boys’ basketball team will enter the home stretch of their season with an overall record of 8-5, looking to strengthen their position with sub-state fast approaching.
Despite gaining a monicker for being a “fourth-quarter team” at times, the Mustangs have done enough to take home victories in a majority of their games, and have the capability to be a very scary team come the postseason.
“Our effort has always been good and that’s one of the things we’ve really been focusing on in my first year here,” Rock Creek head coach Justin Smith said. “We’re playing at a good pace and we’re pressing and getting after people, we’ve done a good job of that.”
With an early-season injury to Dalton Whitworth, who remains questionable to return with a broken ankle, the Mustang's depth has been tested, but a surprise class of juniors has answered the call, and Rock Creek hasn’t missed a beat.
“I think some of our juniors have come along at a higher clip than we expected before the season began,” Smith said. “They put a lot of work in over the summer and they’ve been big contributors for us.”
Coley Burgess and Daegen Vinduska have led the offense for the Mustangs this season, combining to split 20 points on any given night.
Part of what makes Rock Creek so challenging to guard is in how they spread their scoring around and hit teams from all over the floor, but while that even spread has been a blessing at times, it’s also led to some inconsistencies offensively.
“We need to continue to get consistent scoring from people,” he said. “We have a lot of guys that average 11 or 12 but they may have 15 one night and 2 the next. If we do gain that consistency we’re going to be tough to beat.”
While Rock Creek doesn’t boast a traditional 20-point per night star, the Mustangs have seen their go-to playmakers emerge in the month of January, giving an already confident group an even bigger boost moving forward.
“We’ve had kids step up and play a more dominant role and that’s allowed some of our kids to separate themselves a bit,” Smith said. “We’ve had kids that I didn’t think would play a lot that are getting quite a bit of time, I figured we’d be deep but not this deep.”
With a propensity for overturning late deficits, and a roster loaded with talent, the Mustangs will look to continue putting all the pieces together to peak at the right time, and chase their lofty goals come late February.
“We’re still in a division where we can win a championship if we take care of our league and we can still secure a strong position at sub-state,” Smith said. “Every year that I’m head coach our goal will be to make it to state and compete for a state championship and I think if we continue to build and grow that’s an opportunity that will be available to us.”
Rock Creek will return to the floor on Friday, February 3rd when the Mustangs welcome in Riley County at 7:00.
For continuing coverage of Mustang hoops all season long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.