John Raffel
Sports Scene
It’s been a fun season so far for coach Mitch Bohn and the Sanford Meridian boys basketball
team.
But the Mustangs are hoping the fun has just begun.
They beat Roscommon 67-33 on Jan. 19 and have won eight straight after a 50-40 loss to
Saginaw Heritage in early December. The most dramatic win was at Beaverton on Jan. 4 in a
42-41 overtime triumph.
Bohn is in his 21st season. The Mustangs were 19-2 last season.
“I don’t think we’ve reached our potential,” he said. “We’re just starting to get our entire team
back. We had three starters out at one point. We’re hoping we’ll play at a higher level we
have right now. But we think we’re getting there.”
Four senior starters graduated from last season.
“I thought we’d be very good because our sixth man was a junior and we started a sophomore
and our JV was 19-1,” Bohn said. “So we felt we’d be good. The win over Beaverton was
especially dramatic since it puts the Mustangs on top of the Jack Pine Conference standings.
Lucas Lueder is averaging 15 points per game as the team’s leading scorer. Gabe Brady is
averaging 10 points a game.
“After those two, it’s pretty even, pretty spread out,” Bohn said.
He indicated this year’s team is similar to those in the recent past.
“We have willing and able passers,” Bohn said. “We have shooters. We can share the ball.
We don’t have to have one go-to guy to monopolize the ball.”
Many big games are coming up for the Mustangs and Bohn points out what he feels will be
the key for success.
“It will be the ability of our defense to stay focused on forcing the opponent to take a bad shot
over a good one and the ability of the offense to get everybody involved,” he said.