Mt. Pleasant boys claim another SEC crown with win over Washington

The Mt. Pleasant boys? basketball team scored the first 14 points of their final Southeast Conference game on their way to a 62-36 win over Washington and with the victory, they claimed sole possession of the SEC crown for yet another season.

?We played with a lot of energy,? Coach Paul Rundquist said. ?From the beginning, we really communicated well. It was a team effort.?

Cameron Frank, Logan Mulford, Faith Pope and Ryan Hanna each scored for Mt. Pleasant in the first half of the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the Panther defense kept the Demons from getting decent shot as Mt. Pleasant took a 14-0 lead.

?Our biggest struggle was Mt. Pleasant?s defensive pressure,? Washington Coach Bryce Smeins said. ?They did a great job of keeping pressure on us, and we didn?t handle it well.?

Kyle Roder ended the Panthers? run when he put two points on the board for Washington with 3:30 left in the first, and he hit a 3-pointer 40 seconds later to make it 16-5.

Justin Hoffman put in a jumper with just a few seconds remaining in the quarter to make it 16-7, but then the Demons hit another dry spell as the second quarter started, allowing the Panthers 14 more unanswered points for a 30-7 advantage.

Once again, Frank, Pope and Hanna contributed a few points each to the run. Then, after Washington?s Thomas Bump sank a floater in the paint, Trey Magnani stole the ball and laid one up and Mulford scored from deep.

?The key was playing good defense, moving the ball around and getting good shots ? just the simple stuff,? said Mulford, who finished with 13 points on the night.

Mulford was one of three Panthers in double figures, led by Frank with 18. Frank also dished six assists on the night.

Pope put 13 points on the board and pulled down 14 rebounds to finish with a double-double. He also blocked five shots.

Magnani had four steals in thegame, and Hanna contributed nine points.

Washington outscored Mt. Pleasant in the second half, 26-25, but the Demons ultimately fell far short of a win. Still, Smeins was impressed with his team?s persistence.

?We kept playing hard,? he said. ?We had a great effort down the stretch ? we didn?t quit, and we scored some baskets early in the fourth quarter. We just have some things to work on.?

The Demons are now 5-14 on the season and finished 1-7 in the SEC.

The Panthers are 15-5 overall and 7-1 in the conference, good enough for the SEC title ? a title they?ve claimed for a number of consecutive seasons now. Rundquist isn?t sure exactly how far back the streak goes, but it?s at least six years.

?(Winning the conference) is always one of our goals, but we still have others we?d like to accomplish,? Rundquist said. ?We?d like to keep improving, and I think we are (peaking) at the right time of the season. Every day we want to get better.?

The Panthers host Marion on Tuesday in their last regular-season game.

They open the district tournament on Monday, Feb. 18, against Clear-Creek Amana. That game will be played at 7 p.m. in Mt. Pleasant.

With a win, the Panthers will move on to the District 9 final against either Ft. Madison or Williamsburg.

The district champion plays in the substate game against the District 10 champion, which will be either Keokuk, Fairfield, Solon or Washington.