1st ever River Rivalry a hit

Keokuk and Clark County High Schools hosted the first ever Iowa-Missouri ‘River Rivalry’ series on Saturday, as members of Iowa’s Southeast Conference and Southeast Iowa Super Conference took on Missouri’s Clarence Cannon Conference in a 16-game basketball clash.

The boys’ series was dominated by the state of Iowa, as the Hawkeye State went 7-1 on the day, including a win from the Mt. Pleasant boys. The girls series was split 4-4, with Washington picking up one of Iowa’s four victories.

The morning began with a dominant performance from the Mt. Pleasant boys in Keokuk. The Panthers rolled Monroe City 62-27 to earn the first victory on the boys’ side.

“It was nice to get the first W in the state of Iowa today,” said Rawson. “It was pretty early, and a really tough game to come back from after a real emotional game last night (against Washington).”

Payton Hagans scored 16 points for the Panthers. Carter Amos had 14, and Aaiden Ashton added 13 to give Mt. Pleasant three double-digit scorers. Owen Vansickel and Drake Anderson scored five each. Noah Lange had four. Chris Ewoldt scored three. Christian Stacy scored two, and Nate Stroud had one.

Later in the day, the Washington was defeated in the boys’ series. Macon got the best of the Demons 67-47.

It would be a 1-1 day for Washington against Macon, though, as the Demon girls pulled out a win in one of the best games of the weekend, edging the Tigerettes 55-51.

After a strong start, Washington saw a 26-23 halftime lead turn into a 40-36 deficit after three quarters.

The Demons had to rally back, and rally back they did. Washington took the lead on a layup by Alex Murphy with just over three minutes to go, and then Kendall Hinrichsen sank a dagger 3-pointer on the next possession to put Washington up four.

Macon had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but a last-second layup rolled off, and Murphy cleared the board and sank two clinching free throws.

“We got up early and they came back and took a lead of six, maybe seven points,” said Washington head coach Shannon Rugg. “We got some stops on the defensive end, and then we executed a little better on the offensive end than we had been.”

Murphy finished the night with 12 points. Leighton Messinger had 11. Kendall Hinrichsen scored 10. Lauren Hinrichsen had nine. Adalyn Long had eight. Makenna Conrad scored three, and Maci Williams finished with two.

The Mt. Pleasant girls played a nail-biter as well, but this time it went the other way, as Highland (Mo.) scored a comeback victory, knocking the Panthers off 42-36.

After trailing 27-26 after three quarters, Mt. Pleasant had a three-point lead with a few minutes left in the game, but the Panthers couldn’t quite close it out.

“It was just a game of missed opportunities,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson. “I felt kind of confident with three minutes to go, but I'm not sure if we scored after that.”

Andrea Lopreato scored 19 in the loss for Mt. Pleasant. Tristian Shull and Juliana Burns scored six points each, and Kate Schimmelpfennig had five.

The Iowa girls had a 4-2 lead on Missouri after six games, but Keokuk and Notre Dame each had close losses to close out the night. Fort Madison was also defeated in a nail-biter, losing by one point on a buzzer-beater 3-pointer.

FINAL BOYS SCORES

Mt. Pleasant 62, Monroe City 27

West Burlington 73, South Shelby 28

Fort Madison 61, Centralia 53

Central Lee 55, Brookfield 44

Holy Trinity 71, Highland (Mo.) 36

Macon 67, Washington 47

Burlington 59, Palmyra 22

Keokuk 35, Clark County 27

FINAL GIRLS SCORES

Holy Trinity 48, Clark County 31

Central Lee 41, Brookfield 29

Centralia 45, Fort Madison 44

Washington 55, Macon 51

Highland (Mo.) 42, Mt. Pleasant 36

West Burlington 51, Monroe City 37

South Shelby 62, Keokuk 55

Palmyra 58, Notre Dame 51