MP girls fall in home opener

It was an uphill climb for the Mt. Pleasant girls' basketball team in their home opener on Tuesday night, as the Panthers hosted a highly-touted Pella team. The Panthers competed in three out of four quarters, but Pella used a 27-point second quarter to build a big lead, and ended up knocking off Mt. Pleasant 63-37.

Points were hard to come by for both teams early on. The Panther defense kept them in the game early, and a three-pointer from Lydia Stewart midway through the first quarter had the two teams tied at 6-6.

Pella scored the final six points of the quarter to take a 12-6 lead. Stewart had four points to lead the Panthers after eight minutes.

The Lady Dutch began to pull away in the second quarter, thanks to a handful of fastbreak points. Pella was able to use their speed down the court to race out to layups and won the period 27-7. It was the only quarter where Pella scored over 15 points, and the Lady Dutch took a 39-13 lead into halftime.

'We just had a bad quarter and they got some breakaway layups, which we talked about,” head coach Curt Watson said after the game. 'But our girls were driving to the hole and we missed some shots and just didn't get back.”

The Panthers were outscored 15-14 in the third quarter. Elli Liechty and Maddie Williamson each scored four points in the period. Mt. Pleasant won the fourth quarter 10-9, thanks in part to three points in each from Stewart and Avery Sutter, but Pella walked out with a 26-point win. 'It wasn't because of a lack of effort,” Coach Watson said in postgame. 'These girls played hard until the end. We're still developing. You can tell our offense needs some work, but overall on defense, we kind of stuck to the game plan. The second quarter just got away from us.”

Mt. Pleasant is now 0-2 to start the season. They'll have two games next week. The Panthers will host Ottumwa on Monday, Nov. 26, at 7:45 p.m., and they'll begin their conference schedule at Fairfield on Friday, Nov. 30.