MP girls catch fire

The Mt. Pleasant girls picked up two home wins in entirely different ways this weekend. The Panthers blew the doors off Ft. Madison 52-22 on Friday night and then had to grind out a 51-48 victory against Burlington on Saturday.

The Panthers left no doubt who the better team was in Friday's Southeast Conference showdown. Mt. Pleasant simply dominated from start to finish, especially in the first half.

Mt. Pleasant scored in bunches in the first two quarters. In the first period, Sadie Carrasco led the way with eight points inside, and Mt. Pleasant held the Bloodhounds to just four points. The Panthers led 18-4 after the first period.

'We told them in the first four minutes, we need to get after it and really let them know that we're here to play and we're not going to be screwing around,” head coach Curt Watson said about the fast start. 'We had 10 assists in the first half, and I thought we really shared the ball well.”

Mt. Pleasant kept the heat on in the second quarter. The Panthers outscored the Bloodhounds 14-6 in the second quarter, and led 32-10 at halftime. Carrasco reached double-digits by halftime, putting up 12 points before the break.

The Panthers could cruise from that point on, but they still outscored the Hounds by two points in each of the final two quarters. When the final buzzer sounded, Mt. Pleasant held a 30-point advantage.

Carrasco filled up the stat sheet in the win. She led the Panthers with 14 points, 15 rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots.

Lydia Stewart had 12 points in the win. Maddie Williamson scored 10 points and dished out five assists. Karsyn Lamm and Sydni Coleman scored five points each. Isabel Ashton had four, and Emma Rugg scored two.

Williamson had the hot hand early in the senior day game on Saturday. She put up seven points in the first quarter and five in the second.

Burlington held a 13-12 lead after the first quarter, but Mt. Pleasant was able to grab the lead early in the second period. The Panthers started the quarter on a 10-2 run and led 21-13 in the final minute, but Burlington did close the game out on their own 5-0 run to cut Mt. Pleasant's lead to 21-18 at the half.

The Panthers stretched their lead to 36-29 after a 15-point third quarter. Ashton scored seven points, all in the final couple of minutes of the period, to give the Panthers a little breathing room heading into the fourth.

Burlington cut the Mt. Pleasant lead back down to one possession on several different occasions in the fourth quarter. The Grayhounds had the opportunity to tie the game up in the final 20 seconds when Mt. Pleasant commmitted a foul on a three-pointer while they were up just three points, but two of the three free throws rolled off and the Panthers hit their free throws late to hang on.

'We hung in there pretty tough (and) made some free throws when we needed to,” Coach Watson said after the game. 'The girls hung in there. We didn't play very good basketball, but we hung on and won. Earlier in the year I think we would have lost that because we would have lost our composure, so we're growing up a little bit.”

Williamson finished the day with 20 points to lead the team in scoring. Emma Huckabone had 11 points. Ashton had 10. Carrasco finished with four points and eight rebounds. Karsy Lamm, Elli Liechty and Sydni Coleman all scored two, and Stewart led the team with five assists.

Mt. Pleasant is now 5-12 overall and 3-4 in conference play. The Panthers will be back at home on Thursday, Jan. 31 for a nonconference tilt against Benton.