The Mustangs took on conference opponent St Cloud Cathedral at St. John's University on Saturday.
These two had already played twice during the regular season, splitting the series. Cathedral gave Mora their one and only conference loss. Mora avenged that loss later in the season on their way to becoming Granite Ridge Conference Champs.
Mora came out of the gate hot and held a 6-0 lead very early on. Things started to cool off as the 1st half progressed. Defenses stiffened and made it difficult to find any open chances. Still Mora ran their offense and patiently waited for their opportunities to strike. Mora held a lead throughout the 1st half and went into halftime with a 28-21 lead.
The 2nd half had a rough start to it for the Mustangs. Cathedral went and scored 6 unanswered points to bring the game within one. Mora was held scoreless for the first 6 plus minutes of the 2nd half. But once they ended their dry spell Mora put the pedal down. They would go on to score 31 points in the last 10 minutes of the game. They seemingly hit every shot they took and the defense was determined to not give Cathedral anything easy. Garett Honstrom was a key piece to the defense, as every shot the Crusaders took had to go over his hand which often lead to a miss and Mora rebound. As the game neared its end, Mora was up by 10 and Cathedral had no choice but to foul and send them to the line. The Mustangs made every free throw count, going 17-17 on the entire game! This also helped them to build their lead even more and eventually end the game. Mora got the win 59-42 and punched their ticket to the semifinal game!
The Mustangs will face another familiar opponent they played twice during the regular season. They'll play Albany on Tuesday in the semifinal game back at St. John's University. Start time is 7:30PM. Mora beat Albany both times they played.
