Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – For a defensive-minded team like Solon the few minutes of Tuesday’s top-10 showdown with rival Mount Vernon seemed slightly out of character.

Led by sharp-shooting senior Jackson Kutcher the Mustangs bolted to a 17-7 lead less than six minutes into the game.

The final 26 minutes looked a lot more like the defense the Spartans had played during a 10-0 start.

After falling into an early deficit Class 3A fourth-ranked Solon clamped down defensively on its way to 58-45 win over No. 10 Mount Vernon in front of a large crowd in Solon.

“That’s what coach really put an emphasis on early in the year was defense,” Solon senior Vince Steinbrech said. “That’s what we’ve really tried to focus on is locking in on defense.”

Steinbrech all 14 of his points over the final three quarters and joined senior guards Gehrig Turner and Jake Benzing in double figures as Solon improved to 11-0 on the season with its sixth consecutive win over Mount Vernon.

The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for Mount Vernon (9-3) and the 45 points are the fewest for the Mustangs since scoring 44 in a December 2 loss at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

“Hitting shots helps a lot but it’s about defense,” Steinbrech said. “Coach really talks about how defense travels so we’ve focused on playing good defense every night.”

Kutcher came out firing and gave the Mustangs an early lead, hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 14 points in the opening five minutes as the Mustangs built an early 16-5 lead.

Mount Vernon led 17-7 when Cooper Parks hit a free throw with 2:25 remaining in the first quarter.

“It was similar to last year when we played them he came out and went crazy in the first quarter,” Steinbrech said. “We talked about that, it was the same thing we had to get more aggressive.”

A combination of events changed the game before halftime.

Solon switched to its 1-3-1 trapping defense which forced the Mustangs into eight second-quarter turnovers.

Combine that with Kutcher spending most of the final 10 minutes of the half on the bench in foul trouble and Solon saw its opportunity to break the game open.

“Kutcher came out and was knocking down those shots and we had to communicate on defense,” Solon junior Caleb Bock said. “When we switched to our 1-3-1 it really helped, we forced some turnovers and slowed them down.”

After allowing 17 points in the opening 5 and a half minutes Solon held Mount Vernon to just two points over the next 11 minutes and 54 seconds, stretch that spanned into the third quarter.

Solon closed the first half on an 11-0 run, holding Mount Vernon scoreless for the final 6:29 of the first half.

“We knew Kutcher was going to shoot shots, and hit shots I just thought we gave him too much room early and he hit some tough, deep 3s but we withstood it,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “We made those adjustments on defense and were able to get into our offense.”

Turner scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the opening quarter to keep Solon afloat during the hot start for Mount Vernon.

Steinbrech had eight of his 14 in the second quarter including six during the 11-0 run to close the half.

“Gehrig gave us a lift when we needed it,” Galpin said. “He got some offensive established and we waited for guys to kind of get going.”

Solon led 27-19 at half and 48-30 after three quarters.

Kutcher finished with a game-high 21 points for Mount Vernon while Joe Briesemeister added nine.

Benzing had 12 points and eight rebounds for Solon while Bock had four points and a game-high nine rebounds.

“Everyone has a role on our team and my role is to get as many rebounds as I can and play good defense,” Bock said. “Everyone just has to fit into their role.”

Mount Vernon           17   2   11  15  –  45

Solon                            14  13  21  10  –  58                                       

Mount Vernon (45) – Cooper Parks 2-8 3-4 7, Stratton Ellyson 0-1 0-0 0, Kellen Haverback 0-4 0-0 0, AJ McDermott 0-1 0-0 0, Oliver Hinrichs 1-2 0-0 2, Jackson Kutcher 7-16 2-2 21, Joe Briesemeister 4-8 0-0 9, Atticus Rood 0-0 0-2 0, Totals 17-47 5-8 45.

Solon (58) – Austin Knight 2-2 0-0 4, Rylen Stiegelmeyer 1-6 0-0 2, Nolan Seagren 0-1 0-0 0, Brett White 2-2 0-0 4, Vince Steinbrech 6-9 2-2 14, Jake Benzing 5-16 0-0 12, Caleb Bock 2-5 0-0 4, Isaiah Zoske 1-1 0-0 3, Gehrig Turner 5-11 3-4 15, Owen Einwalter 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson Link 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 24-55 5-6 58.

3-point field goals – SOL 5-19 (Stiegelmeyer 0-5, Benzing 2-7, Zoske 1-1, Turner 2-4, Einwalter 0-1, Link 0-1), MV 6-21 (Parks 0-2, Ellyson 0-1, Haverback 0-3, McDermott 0-1, Kutcher 5-12, Briesemeiser 1-1). Rebounds – SOL 37 (Bock 9), MV 26 (Parks 5). Turnovers – SOL 18, MV 18. Total fouls – SOL 13, MV 8. Fouled out – SOL (Steinbrech). Technical fouls – None.

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