Mount Pleasant boys roll on to state final

DES MOINES ? After surviving a tense first half, the Panthers held Grinnell to only eight points in the second half for a 53-33 Class 3A state tournament semifinal win last night at Wells Fargo Arena.

Despite making the state tournament for three years straight, this is the first time the Mount Pleasant boys will be playing in the championship game on Saturday night instead of the consolation game on Saturday morning.

?It feels amazing to get over that hump, finally,? senior Jordan Ashton said.

The Panthers, now 25-1, are the winningest team in school history and have a chance to make history again with their potential 26th win. Mount Pleasant hasn?t won a state championship since 1918 and has never won the state tournament in its current qualifying format.

The Panthers will see Western Dubuque (Epworth) in the final game of the tournament, at 6:05 p.m. Saturday.

The Bobcats (24-2) defeated Bishop Heelan, 58-43, just minutes before the Panthers took the floor last night, and ended the Crusaders? hopes for their fourth straight state championship.

Grinnell is now 21-5 and will play the Crusaders in the consolation game on Saturday morning.

In the opening half of last night?s game, the Panthers looked shaky on the court against the Tigers and led by one, 26-25, going into the half.

?Strategically, you play the first half to get to the second half,? Panther coach Paul Rundquist said. ?Tonight, it was a battle. It felt like we weren?t playing well, but at halftime the numbers were there. Grinnell was just getting the ball out and running with it.?

And when they took the court in the third quarter, the Panthers responded with a run of their own; In fact, they made a 27-8 run that lasted the rest of the game.

Ashton led the team on both sides of the court, grabbing a team-high four steals in the game, three of them coming in the last two quarters. He also made good on eight of nine trips to the free-throw line on his way to a game-high 22-points.

?I felt calmed down,? Ashton said. ?In the first half I was playing sporadic, like most of the team.?