Mustangs deliver on Hall of Fame Night

It was a Hall of Fame night and a winning night for Lynchburg-Clay head coach Jason McLaughlin Friday.

Prior to the start of the Mustangs' game against the Fayetteville Rockets, McLaughlin joined his 1993 teammates as the latest inductees into the Lynchburg-Clay High School Athletics Hall of Fame.

Pre-game ceremonies included introductions of all players, coaches and cheerleaders from the 1992-93 Lynchburg-Clay Final Four team.

Jim Faust introduced players Paul Cluxton, John Etienne, Mark Faust, Brian Glover, Tyler Julliard, Greg Koch, Jason McLaughlin, Mark Partin, M.C. Rosselott, Raymond Smith, Richard Warner, Jason West and Chad McConnaughey; and coaches Joe Wills, Mark Pierson and Gordon Sininger. The only player unable to attend was Brian Glover.

Cheerleaders and statistician included: Tara (Davidson) Gragg, Joey (Jackson) Brewer, Stephanie (Allen) Roush, Kristy (Griffith) Warner, Sheizka Komala, Brandy (Soldano) Pitzer, Becky (Soldano) McConnaughey, and Heather (Wallace) Tarr.

The Mustangs ended their 1992-93 regular season on a 13-game winning streak, and continued that momentum with six consecutive victories in postseason play.

They were the undefeated champions of the Southern Hills League, the Southeast District Sectional Tournament champions, the Southeast District Tournament champs and the Division IV Region 15 Regional Tournament champions.

Joe Wills' Mustangs received a gold basketball – symbolic of their perfect league season – at the March 22, 1993 Southern Hills League banquet. In the (then) 22-year history of the SHL, the Mustangs earned the league's first berth in the state Final Four and they were the first team from Highland County in 57 years to reach the Final Four.

Lynchburg-Clay Athletic Director and Final Four team member Mark Faust had commemorative programs printed for the Hall of Fame inductions.

For more on the 1993 Mustangs, go to: www.highlandcountypress.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=15791&SectionID…

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Following the Hall of Fame ceremonies, and the Pricetown Church of Christ Men's Quartet's (Jim Faust, Terry Roush, Dan McLaughlin and Ronnie Gossett) rousing rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Coach McLaughlin's 2013 Mustangs wasted no time in taking the early lead.

Just six seconds after the opening tipoff, freshman Devin Pierson laced a 3-pointer to put Lynchburg-Clay ahead, 3-0. (It should be noted that Devin is the son of Mark Pierson who, moments earlier, was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame.)

Toby Lykins answered with a free throw for the Rockets to make it a 3-1 game; but this was clearly the Mustangs' night. Fayetteville would get no closer than those two points the rest of the evening, as Lynchburg-Clay rolled to a 66-57 victory.

On the Mustangs' next trip down the floor, Pierson found post-man Alec Smith for a bucket and a 5-1 lead. Austin Fowler then scored for Fayetteville, but Ryan Inman answered immediately for the home team. A pair of free throws by D.J. Iles – who would go on to lead all scorers with 28 points – made it 7-5 at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter.

From that point, the Mustangs went on an 8-0 run.

Smith started the scoring with an offensive rebound and put-back for two. Jacob Skaggs followed with a slick reverse layup and an 11-5 lead. Smith grabbed another rebound and converted the layup to stretch the margin to 13-5 and Gage Waits scored with 1:38 on the clock to make it 15-5.

After a Fayetteville timeout, D.J. Iles ended the LC run with a long 3-pointer that found nothing but nylon.

Pierson extended the early lead to 18-8 with his second trey of the first quarter.

Iles was on fire in the high-scoring second period, scoring 15 of his 28 points. But LC's balanced scoring pretty much kept pace. The half ended with the Mustangs holding a 36-31 lead. It also ended with Waits having three fouls.

Foul trouble plagued the Mustangs again in the third period as Smith was whistled for his fourth foul.

Inman and Smith each had six points in the final quarter. However, with Smith on the bench with four fouls, McLaughlin needed Inman to hit the boards throughout the second half. He did.

"We worked all week on being more aggressive on the boards," McLaughlin said. "Ryan really stepped up (after Smith collected his fourth foul). We worked on who should be the dribblers and who should be the shooters. Tonight, it came together."

The coach said this Lynchburg team "has been in every game," but needs to learn how to finish. Friday night, they finished.

Smith led the way with 20 points, Inman added 19 and Pierson netted 11 to lead the Mustangs to their second win against eight losses. Also scoring for the Mustangs were: Waits (5), Skaggs (4), Tyler Allen (5), and Scott Cawood (2).

D.J. Iles led all scorers with 28 points for the Rockets. Corey Lykins hit double digits with 10 points.

Score by quarters

FHS – 08 23 08 18 – 57
LCHS – 19 17 09 21 – 66

Individual scoring

FHS (57) – C. Lykins 0-3-1-10; D. Iles 2-4-12-28; Schafer 0-2-2; M. Iles 0-1-0-3; T. Lykins 1-3-5; Fowler 2-1-5; Decatur 1-2-4.

LCHS (66) – Waits 1-3-5; Skaggs 2-0-4; Inman 7-5-19; Allen 1-1-0-5; Pierson 0-3-2-11; Smith 7-1-3-20; Cawood 1-0-2.