By Weston DeWitt

The Sunrise Mountain Mustangs have experienced their share of highs and lows this season.

The Mustangs added another low to their 2016-17 campaign against the Greenway Demons, as they tied their season low for points scored in a game. The Mustangs fell to the Demons 53-34 in front of a ruckus crowd at Greenway High School.

The Demons maintained solid ball possession right from the tip-off. Greenway shot just 33 percent from the field in the first quarter but led 22-11 by the end of the first half.

As for the Mustangs (6-14, 2-6), they failed to score a point in the second quarter, shot 28 percent and didn’t establish any kind of frontcourt pressure against a tough defense. 

The Mustangs committed 21 fouls in the second half, finishing with 28 total, which came back to bite them as the game progressed. Once the fourth quarter started, head coach Gary Rath switched to a full-court, man-to-man defense.

But it didn’t help. Greenway (12-9, 4-4) went on to win its third game in four games, rebounding from an emotional six-point loss to rival Cactus High School on Thursday night.

Greenway took advantage of every gaping hole left by the Mustangs.

“We really played with some energy here tonight which we haven’t been doing,” Greenway head coach Howard Mueller said. “We really took care of the basketball, which we had struggled with.”

Sophomore forward Ivan Palomar was the energizer bunny for the Demons in the second half.

Within a three minute span he had three huge steals along with two crucial blocks and three points.

“Our coach really gave us a lecture at the beginning of the game, and I hadn’t really been playing well these last couple of games,” Palomar said. “I felt like I was letting the team down. So I decided to start picking it up and to lead my team.”

Mueller added, “Ivan had really been down lately, but he came alive in that third quarter. When things really go well for him he plays with a lot of energy and good things happen.”

Palamor finished the evening with 12 points. Palomar, a sophomore, is one of only two underclassmen on a Greenway roster that carries 11 seniors.

At 14 points per game, Shane Sooknana is Greenway’s leading scorer. On Friday night, he had just four points from the field, but his teammates picked him up.

Greenway will close out its road schedule on Tuesday against Metro Tech High School and then wrap up the regular season at home against the 4A West Region leaders, the Moon Valley Rockets.

“I like this team, but we are just so inconsistent,” Mueller said. “We play well one game, sometimes just a half, and then we don’t play well the second half. The issue that we are having is just playing consistently for four quarters.”

DeWitt is a sporst journalism student at Arizona State.