BY BEAU WICKER
FULTON — For starters, it was a positive season opener for the boys basketball teams from both Caston and Maconaquah here Tuesday night.
The Braves went home with the victory as they held off a late Comets’ surge to win 41-39. Mac coach Luke Zartman improved to 2-0 against his alma mater in the process.
“Obviously all games are big, but playing back at home against your alma mater makes it even more special,” Zartman said. “To be able to come away with a win is definitely nice.”
For the most part, he Comets were able to control the tempo of the game and had a chance to tie it up late before falling just short against a Class 3A team with a plethora of players back from last season.
“For the first time I’ve seen in a long time, they walked out of this locker room playing a 3A school and were disappointed in the fact that they lost,” Caston coach Andy Firth said of his players. “And that’s a big step in what the growing process of what this school’s basketball program has been.”
Maconaquah led 37-30 with 4:30 left in the game after a Curtis Hyde field goal. A Nic George basket made it 39-34 with 2:10 left. Caston’s Wes Rigney recorded a three-point play to draw the Comets within 37-36 with 1:45 left.
The score remained that way until Hyde hit a pair of clutch free throws with :24 left for a 41-37 lead. Caston struggled to get a shot off on the other end, but Brant Hartman hit a jump shot with :03 left to make it a two-point game. Following Caston’s final timeout, the Comets fouled with :02 left. Hyde missed a front end of a one-and-one, Rigney rebounded, but he was smothered on his full-court heave which did not come close.
Mac jumped out to a 30-22 lead, the biggest of the game, in the third quarter. But the Comets closed with a 7-0 run to cut it to one, highlighted by a Rigney trey at the buzzer.
The first half featured four ties and eight lead changes, and the Braves took a 22-19 lead into the break after Cory Christner’s field goal in the closing seconds.
Devin Shaffer and David Carter led the Braves with 11 points apiece. Hyde added nine. Carter pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Rigney had game-highs of 21 points and 10 boards for the Comets.
