2015-16 school year in review: basketball

BY ANDY KRUTSINGER

Mt. Pleasant News

The weather was cold, school was in mid-swing and the action was non-stop during the 2015-16 winter sports season. Today, we jump from fall sports to the winter in our Year In Review to look at the sport of basketball.

All of our area teams had their ups and downs and a few made deep postseason runs including a substate berth for the Mt. Pleasant boys and a second-place finish at the USCAA national championship for the IWU women.

Mt. Pleasant: The Mt. Pleasant boys took perhaps the biggest step forward of all the area teams in the 2015-16 season. The Panthers rose in the ranks in the Southeast Conference, from third place the previous year to conference champions.

Led by a youthful cast, the Panther boys went an undefeated 8-0 in SEC play in the regular season, defeating all conference rivals two times.

The Panther boys continued to make leaps of improvement throughout the season and had two dominant wins in the postseason. Mt. Pleasant defeated Keokuk, 55-29 and Ft. Madison, 48-31 to advance to the substate final in Iowa City.

Despite 25 points from first team all-state selection Brady Sartorius, the Panthers were knocked out in the substate game by eventual 3A champion Cedar Rapids Xavier.

It was a rebuilding year for the Mt. Pleasant girls after losing their four leading scorers the year before.

The Panthers had a rough start to the season, losing their first six games of the season, but they won three out of four games after that including an upset over a talented Mediapolis team at home, 49-44.

Mt. Pleasant was only able to get one conference win on the season, a 68-54 road game in Ft. Madison on Jan. 29. Kalynn Batey and D?Jannay Patterson each scored 14 in the victory.

In the postseason, however, the Bloodhounds got their revenge on Mt. Pleasant?s home floor. Ft. Madison came back in the fourth quarter knocked out the Panthers, 37-33, ending Mt. Pleasant?s season in the first round.

Iowa Wesleyan: The SLIAC race was hot in both the men?s and women?s competition in 2015-16 and IWU was right in the thick of it in both leagues.

The IWU men were right towards the top of the SLIAC standings all year but stumbled late to get knocked out of the conference race.

The Tigers started the conference season off winning six of their first seven games including an 85-82 win over a stacked Spalding team behind 22 points from Mitch Drey, and an 82-81 road win over Blackburn on a game winning layup by Steven Archibald.

IWU took a big hit in 120-111 shootout loss to Greenville College just three days after the Blackburn win, and that spurned a rough stretch where the Tigers lost eight of their last 11 games.

When the dust settled, IWU finished 9-9 in conference play, which placed them in a tie for seventh place.

Much like the men?s team, the Tiger women?s team started the season off hot, winning eight of their first nine games on the year.

The Tigers also won their first seven SLIAC games to take a lead in the conference before falling at Greenville on the very same day as the men, 72-63.

The IWU women were 8-1 at one point in conference but the Tigers went 5-4 to close out their conference slate and finished third place in the conference.

The Tigers? record allowed them to advance to the USCAA National Championships in Uniontown, Pa., where they represented themselves well, winning the first two games, 54-36 and 74-60, before falling in the championship game, 72-65.

New London: The New London girls? team was dealt a blow early in the season when star forward Morgan Christner was knocked out for the season with a knee injury in their jamboree game to start the season, but the Tigers banded together and turned it into a good season.

After falling in their first four games, New London went on a tear, scooping up six victories in a row including a 57-43 win over rival Danville and a 76-67 home win over Cardinal.

The Tiger girls continued to improve and finished 14-9 overall, earning them a home game to start postseason play.

New London won that game, 75-24 over English Valleys behind 25 points from Breanna Mettler. However, they were knocked out by Holy Trinity, 49-40, in the next round.

The Tiger boys? team had a huge boost from their underclassmen in 2015-16. Three of their top four scorers were freshmen, led by Mason Porter who scored 16.6 points per game.

The Tigers went 13-10 on the season including a big upset win in the postseason. New London was the No. 7 seed and they upended second-seeded Highland, 64-45. Junior Ben Dentlinger had 19 points and 16 rebounds in the win.

New London was knocked out, 70-61, by Lone Tree in the second round but will bring all but one player back in 2016-17.

WACO: The WACO girls were one of the youngest teams in the entire state in 2015-16. The Warriors had only one senior and two juniors on the team, but the youthful squad was able to pick up eight wins in the regular season.

WACO scored wins over both of their Henry County rivals during the season. They defeated New London, 36-35, at home behind a 16-point outing from Halle Kissell. They defeated Winfield-Mt. Union, 33-27 at home with a 12-point outing from both Kissell and Kiana Miller.

The Warriors crushed Keota, 46-19 in the first round of the playoffs, but Burlington Notre Dame knocked WACO out, 75-30, in round two.

It was a learning year for the Warrior boys in 2015-16. After going 2-3 in their first five games, WACO lost 15 games in a row, but the squad didn?t quit.

The Warriors were able to salvage the season with two dominant wins over Columbus Community at the end of the year. WACO then upset Holy Trinity, 51-48, in the postseason with the help of 13 points from Jackson Roth and Duncan Pickard.

The Warriors put up a good fight against heavily favored Danville in the next round, but the Bears pulled out the win, 63-47.

Winfield-Mt. Union: The W-MU boys were one of the most talented teams in the area in 2015-16, but their starting five could never get on the court at the same time due to transfer rules and injuries, including a season-ender to senior post Sam Jennings, which dealt a big blow to the team.

The Wolves did win five of their first six games and played a great game against state-ranked Danville early in the year. The Bears escaped Winfield with an 82-68 win.

Through the trials of the season, the Wolves were still able to go 13-10 on the year, but their postseason run was cut short by Burlington Notre Dame, 65-56 in the quarterfinals.

The W-MU girls had to rebuild in a big way in 2015-16, fielding just one senior on the team.

The Wolves lost their first 13 games but finally picked up a win over Columbus, 40-34 on the road in mid-January behind 14 points for Pearl Krieger-Coble.

W-MU parlayed that win into a good stretch where they won four of their last six games in January. They finished the year 4-19 and got knocked out of the postseason, 76-43, by Holy Trinity.