Mount Pleasant romps Fairfield to open SEC play

MOUNT PLEASANT ? After opening their season with a win over class 4A Cedar Rapids Xavier earlier last week, the Mt. Pleasant boys? basketball team turned around and opened its Southeast Conference season.

Rival Fairfield turned out to be just a speed bump as the Panthers cruised to a 57-18 win.

?It?s game two and it?s opening the conference and we wanted to come out and play sound fundamentally, both offensively and defensively,? said Mt. Pleasant coach Paul Rundquist. ?I thought we did that and I thought we did a really nice job of getting out and running the passing lanes."

Mt. Pleasant opened the game on a 9-0 run before Fairfield coach Tyler Miklo called a time out with 5:20 left in the first quarter to settle his team down.

?I was a little disappointed with the way we came out. We talked all week about being able to be aggressive and not be timid and we looked a little timid to start the game,? said Miklo.

Fairfield found itself down 21-1 at the end of the first quarter, with its lone point coming on a free throw midway into the quarter. Senior Grant Curran gave the team its first basket of the night, a jump shot with 7:41 left in the second quarter.

Curran?s shot wasn?t enough to ignite Fairfield?s offense as Mt. Pleasant increased its ever-growing lead to 25-3 on a one-handed dunk by Henry Krieger-Coble with 6:15 left in the quarter.

Mt. Pleasant took a 41-7 lead into halftime before outscoring Fairfield 16-11 in the second half to cruise to its first conference win of the season.

?They?re all they?re cracked up to be. They?re one of the top-rated teams in the state for a reason,? said Miklo. ?It?s the first time for a lot of our kids to get out on the court and play with their starters.?

Curran finished the game as Fairfield?s leading scorer with seven points. Krieger-Coble was a perfect 8-of-8 shooting from the floor en route to leading Mt. Pleasant with 18 points.

Mount Pleasant lost a 56-54 heartbreaker at Pella Saturday in a matchup of two top-10 Southeast Iowa teams.

Ottumwa 56, Fairfield 28

OTTUMWA ? Another slow start doomed Fairfield Saturday afternoon against Ottumwa and the Bulldogs ran away with a 56-28 victory.

6-foot-5 sophomore Faith Pope came up big for Ottumwa scoring 21 points eight rebounds and was also a disruptive force for the Fairfield offense with three blocks.

Ottumwa took a 28-9 lead at half before going onto the big win.

The Trojans remain in search of win No. 1 as they now prepare for Tuesday?s trip to Albia.