C. Milton Wright blew open a close game with a second-half outburst to win the Dulaney Tournament last night.
The Mustangs (3-4) defeated Hereford, 70-58, behind tournament Most Valuable Player Pete Troilo's game-high 20 points.
With leading big man Chris Rueckart on the bench with four fouls, Troilo led the way during a third-quarter spurt.
Trailing by four at halftime, the Mustangs decided to push the offense just a little.
When Troilo tied the game at 41 just three minutes into the period the Mustangs used that to go on an 18-3 run to take a 59-44 lead going into the fourth quarter.
"We wanted to pick things up after halftime," said Troilo, who went 7-for-11 from the field. "With Chris out I had to step up my game and hope things work out for us."
Rueckart, who led the Mustangs with 23 in their win over Loch Raven in Wednesday's semifinals, finished with 12 points, and Chris Russell, who played great defense all night, scored eight points.
Nat Saunders led Hereford (2-4) with 15 and Brad Smith scored 13.
"That run hurt us really bad," said Hereford coach Mark Trotta, whose team finished 10-10 last year. "We were hurt by fouls and turnovers. We wanted to shut the game down, but they picked the game up against us."
Said C. Milton Wright coach George Constantine: "Fouls hurt us, too, but Pete's leadership really helped us.
"They didn't do too well when we pushed the ball up and that was because of Pete. But Chris got us here. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't be here."
During the big run, Hereford was outscored 22-3.
"I saw them do that against Loch Raven," said Trotta. "They let you take control and then they would take the game over in the second half."
The Mustangs opened the game with a 7-2 edge as Rueckart, a 6-foot-3 junior, scored five of the first seven points.
But Hereford took the lead at 14-13 on a three-pointer by Matt Saunders at 2:17 of the opening period.
The basket completed an 11-4 run that started after a technical foul was called on Rueckart for taunting.
Hereford had two 10-point leads in the second period. Its last big lead of the half came at 38-28 with 1:50 to play.
Wright closed the 10-point lead to four as Troilo scored six straight points to push it to within 41-37 at halftime.
After that it was time for the massive run that led the Mustangs to victory.
The 56 points were in sharp contrast to Wednesday's game, when Hereford was held to 17 first-half points in its 44-39 win over host Dulaney.
In that game Hereford hit only 12 field goals, while last night it had 21.
Loch Raven shut out Dulaney 9-0 in overtime to win the consolation game, 55-46.
Butch Liebert scored four of his game-high 20 points in overtime to lead the Raiders (4-2).
Andrew Kyle added 18 as Loch Raven went 16-for-34 from the free-throw line.
Jon Snyder led Dulaney (2-5) with 17 and Spencer Steven scored 10.