Demon girls fall to Panthers

The Mt. Pleasant girls? basketball team didn?t hesitate to instill its will on Friday night.

The Panthers? defense held Washington to 13 first-half points, as they cruised to a 65-42 victory on Friday night.

?We wanted to put a little pressure on them, and we are long,? Mt. Pleasant head coach Dave Hutchcroft said. ?We have two 6-footers at the front of that press, and they can move. We didn?t get a lot of steals, but we forced them into bad passes, traveling and stepping out of bounds. (Washington) is young and we hoped we could do that.?

The 17-4 Panthers had four players finish in double figures, led by senior Kelsi Phipps, who put in 19.

Phipps also grabbed a team-high six rebounds in the contest as her team shot 52 percent from the field.

Washington (6-14) was led by Amber Salow?s 11 points (three 3-pointers) in the game.

?Our press break, if we run it right, is good,? Washington head coach Jay Zieglowsky said. ?Our plan was to be deliberate and patient. The girls were tremendously patient, but we threw the ball away a couple of times and got trapped. I thought we did a good job of that, but we gave up some easy shots.?

Mt. Pleasant opened the game on a 12-3 run, and continued that success in the second quarter, taking a 32-13 lead into halftime.

The Demons made a 15-4 run in the third quarter, but the Panthers were too much to overcome, as Mt. Pleasant responded with a 12-2 run to extend its lead in the fourth quarter.

For the Demons, the task will be forgetting a tough regular season as they prepare for a road postseason test against Knoxville on Wednesday night.

?We have to realize it?s a second season,? Zieglowsky said. ?Everyone in the state is 0-0 right now. We have to limit turnovers, play good defense and take good shots. We have girls that can really shoot the ball if we are just patient.?

The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m.