Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MOUNT VERNON – Everything about the offensive effort from Solon was impressive on Tuesday.

Solon shot 53 percent from the field, went 9-of-18 from 3-point range and scored 48 second-half points while setting a season-high point total.

The most impressive part of the Spartan’s 78-58 win over Highway 1 rival Mount Vernon was that it came without a huge effort from leading scorer Jake Benzing.

Five Spartans scored in double figures on Tuesday as Solon extended its winning streak to four and improved to 8-3 on the season with the win over the Mustangs in a WAMAC East Division matchup in Mount Vernon.

“It’s just the way that we do it, we always have to be a team and play together,” Solon junior Rylen Stiegelmeyer said. “We’ve gotten really good at that.”

Benzing entered Tuesday’s rivalry game averaging just over 19 points per game and had been the top scorer for the Spartans in eight of 10 games.

The junior standout had plenty of help on Tuesday.

Senior Oaken Foster had a double-double with a game-high 19 points and 12 rebounds and Benzing was one of three Spartans to score 11 points as Solon won a third straight over Mount Vernon.

“When Jake isn’t going off he really shares the ball and gets everyone involved,” Solon junior Cole Buffington said. “Everyone off the bench is ready to go in and make an impact.”

Mount Vernon (7-5) controlled the first half leading 18-12 after one quarter and took its biggest lead of the game at 36-23 on a Joey Rhomberg 3-pointer with 2:43 remaining in the first half.

Buffington got the Spartans back in the game before halftime with five points in the final 95 seconds that cut the Mustang halftime lead to 37-30.

“Cole came off the bench and hit some big shots,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “Those points off the bench were really big.”

Solon quickly flipped the game with a 9-0 run to open the second half.

Senior Sean Stahle scored eight consecutive points in a span of 48 seconds to give Solon its first lead of the game at 39-37.

Mount Vernon regained the lead at 42-41 on a Zach Fall 3-pointer with 5:14 remaining in the quarter but Solon closed the quarter on a 14-2 run.

“Their style of defense is aggressive and it sped us up in the first half, there is no doubt we got sped up and we have 10 turnovers in the first half,” Galpin said. “We just had to calm down and that was a lot of it we just played a little calmer.”

Solon led 55-44 after three quarters and never led the Mustangs get closer than nine points the rest of the way.

The Spartans shot 60 percent from the field in the second half including 6-of-11 from 3-point range.

Stahle had 10 of his 11 points in the second half, Benzing had nine of his 11 points after halftime and Stiegelmeyer had a pair of second-half 3-pointers.

“It kind of clicked after halftime,” Stiegelmeyer said. “The energy really went up and we moved the ball and played together.”

After allowing 37 first-half points on 52 percent shooting while playing primarily a 1-3-1 zone, Solon switched to man-to-man defense after halftime and forced Mount Vernon into seven turnovers.

The Mustangs shot 42 percent on just 19 field goal attempts after halftime.

“Marion was a wake up call, when we play teams like that we can’t play 1-3-1 because they will put shooters everywhere so we have to be able to mix the man-to-man and the 1-3-1,” Galpin said. “We put a lot of time and emphasis into the man-to-man and these guys have been really receptive and it’s not perfect yet but they are growing leaps and bounds.”

Solon                            12  18  25  23  –  78

Mount Vernon          18  19   7   14  –  58

Solon (78) – Sean Stahle 4-7 2-3 11, Rylan Stiegelmeyer 2-5 0-0 6, Austin Knight 0-1 0-0 0, Brayden Miller 0-0 1-2 1, Cole Buffington 3-4 4-4 11, Vince Steinbrech 0-1 2-2 2, Jake Benzing 4-11 2-2 11, Oaken Foster 7-11 2-5 19, Gehrig Turner 4-5 4-6 12,  Will Cusick 2-4 0-0 5, Totals 26-49 17-24 78.

Mount Vernon (58) – Jensen Meeker 4-6 1-1 9, Zach Fall 2-9 1-2 6, Caleb Dausener 0-1 0-0 0, Brady Erickson 5-8 4-5 15, Jackson Kutcher 5-14 2-3 14, Joey Rhomberg 4-6 2-3 12, Joe Briesemeister 1-2 0-0 2, Lukas Schrock 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 21-47 9-14 58

3-point field goals – SOL 9-18 (Stahle 1-2, Stiegelmeyer 2-4, Buffington 1-2, Steinbrech 0-1, Benzing 1-5, Foster 3-3, Cusick 1-1), MV 7-22 (Fall 1-5, Erickson 1-1, Kutcher 2-11, Rhomberg 3-5). Rebounds – SOL 37 (Foster 12), MV 16 (Rhomberg 4). Turnovers – SOL 13, MV 11. Total fouls – SOL 20, MV 17. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – MV (Rhomberg).

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