Mt. Pleasant boys take two

It was a good weekend for the Mt. Pleasant boys' basketball team. The Panthers had two games in two days, and they took care of business in both, upending Ft. Madison 52-47 on the road Friday and running away from Burlington 64-44 on Saturday.

Mt. Pleasant jumped out to an early lead in Ft. Madison and held a 14-9 advantage after the first quarter. The Bloodhounds struck back in the second quarter, outscoring the Panthers 16-7 in the period to take a 25-21 lead into halftime.

The Panthers bounced right back in the third quarter. Mt. Pleasant won the third period 17-10 to get the lead back at 38-35 after the third quarter.

The Bloodhounds, who stunned Mt. Pleasant with a comeback victory in the first meeting between the two teams, couldn't pull off another stunner as Mt. Pleasant clung onto the lead in the fourth quarter and eventually won by five.

Sam Beatty had a great game down low, going 8-12 from the field and leading the team with 18 points and four steals. Rhett Zeglen scored 13 points, and Keegan Kohorst scored 11 points and dished out four assists. Brody Bender ended the night with seven points off the bench. Tucker Johnson scored three points.

Saturday's showdown with the Grayhounds began with a wonky first half, right from the get-go. Mt. Pleasant took the lead on a technical foul free throw after Burlington was caught dunking pre-game. Mt. Pleasant had five scorers in the period, and the Panthers got out to a 15-10 lead after the first quarter.

Burlington clawed back to tie the game before halftime. The Grayhounds won the second quarter 14-9 in a foul-infested second quarter which knotted up the game at 24-24 when a frustrated Panther squad went to the locker room.

'I told the guys, we have to keep our composure,” head coach Caleb Akey said. 'Everyone was getting a little frustrated, and I apologized to them for me becoming a little too frustrated. I explained to them, they can't feed off the crowd or the sideline or whatever. They need to keep their composure, and I thought we did that in the second half.”

Mt. Pleasant dominated the paint in the second half. Beatty scored eight points in the third quarter to lead the Panthers to a 41-36 lead after three quarters, and added 12 points in the fourth to help the Panthers pull away.

Altogether, Mt. Pleasant outscored Burlington 23-8 in a wild quarter that included a dunk from Beatty and a technical foul on the Burlington bench.

Beatty finished the game with 24 points and five rebounds. Kohorst ended the day with 16 points and three assists. Jaxon Hoyle scored eight points, which included a couple of threes. Johnson had seven points and five steals. Clayton Lowery scored five points and Zeglen finished with four.

It was the last nonconference game between Mt. Pleasant and Burlington for the foreseeable future. The Grayhounds, who are led by a talented young core, will enter the Southeast Conference next season.

'I'll tell you right now, these guys are going to be really, really good for at least a few years,” Akey said after the win. 'I don't know what they have in the middle school or elementary levels, but they're young (and) their freshman and sophomore classes are really good. They're going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

The Panthers now sit at 8-8 overall and 3-4 in the SEC. They'll play Iowa City Regina in a nonconference home game on Tuesday, Jan. 29.