MP girls trump Trojans

MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant girls basketball team played stifling defense on Friday night. The Panthers shut down a tough Fairfield offensive attack en route to a 43-38 win.

The Panthers led from coast-to-cost to earn the victory, which avenged a 52-48 loss in Fairfield earlier this season.

“It was pretty epic,” said Mt. Pleasant post Jadan Brumbaugh. “We've been working up to beat them again, because it was a tough loss.”

Mt. Pleasant bothered the Trojans early. There was a lid on the rim for Fairfield in the first two quarters as the Panthers led 12-4 after one quarter and 24-13 at the half.

Mt. Pleasant was held to just five points in the third quarter, but Fairfield couldn’t take advantage. The Trojans scored just four points in the third period, allowing Mt. Pleasant to stretch the lead to 29-17 with eight minutes left.

The Panthers turned it on early in the fourth. Mt. Pleasant started the period on an 11-4 run and a fast break layup from Andrea Lopreato put them up 40-21 with four minutes remaining.

“The first 30 minutes, we just didn't shoot well,” said Fairfield head coach Pat Pacha. “I think our effort was OK, but we couldn't make the shots.”

The Trojans did stage a huge comeback in the final minutes. The Trojans clawed their way back to cut the lead to just five points on a Brynley Allison 3-pointer with five seconds remaining, but with no timeouts left, the Panthers were able to just let the clock run out.

“Had we had a couple more timeouts, I think we might have made it even more interesting,” Pacha said.

Mt. Pleasant was led by Andrea Lopreato, who scored 16 points on the night. Brumbaugh finished with eight points. Kenna Lamm and Kate Schimmelpfennig had six each. Tristan Shull scored three, and the duo of Elsie Lange and Andi Scott scored two apiece.

Fairfield’s twin-killers Delaney and Danielle Breen finished with 11 points and 10 points respectively, but that was a total that Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson could take after allowing 37 to the Breens in the first showdown.

“I thought we did a really good job with the Breens tonight,” said Watson. “We decided we'd make somebody else beat us.”

Mallory Lyon scored seven points for the Trojans. Maddie Jones had five. Allison finished with four, and Anna Dunlap scored one.

Mt. Pleasant moved to 11-10 overall with the win. The Panthers finished the season 5-5 in SEC play. Fairfield fell to 12-8, 6-4.

Both teams will be on the road for the Class 4A regional first round on Wednesday. Mt. Pleasant will be at Fort Madison, and Fairfield will be in Oskaloosa.