Mt. Pleasant girls take No. 12 Keokuk to the brink

MT. PLEASANT — The 12th-ranked (4A) Keokuk girls basketball team needed one win to wrap up the Southeast Conference championship, but Mt. Pleasant sure didn’t make it easy.

The Panthers gave the Chiefs everything they could handle on Friday night. Mt. Pleasant took Keokuk to overtime before the Chiefs pulled out an 85-79 victory to clinch the conference title.

“I just thought our effort was tremendous tonight,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson. “We just busted our butts.“

The Panthers had to scrap and claw to get it to the extra period. Mt. Pleasant found itself trailing by four points with under 30 seconds remaining in regulation.

Down 68-64, Kenna Lamm nailed a clutch 3-pointer to bring the Keokuk lead down to one point. After two Chiefs points on the other end, Tristian Shull was fouled and put at the free-throw line with just 10 seconds on the clock.

Shull made one of two to cut the lead to just two points, and then made an athletic move to steal the ball and feed Andrea Lopreato, who got fouled and sank both free throws to send the game into the extra period, all tied at 70-70.

Mt. Pleasant led a couple of different times in overtime, but Keokuk had just enough to pull past the Panthers in the final minutes.

After an early 14-5 run, Mt. Pleasant trailed 20-19 after one quarter and 36-31 at halftime. The Panthers enjoyed a 10-point lead at one point in the third before Keokuk stormed back, and the two teams entered the fourth tied 50-50.

“I didn’t even really see it,” Watson said. “I know Tristian just made a heck of a play.”

Andrea Lopreato went off for 31 points in the win. Jadan Brumbaugh had 17, and Kenna Lamm scored 15 to give Mt. Pleasant three double-digit scorers.

Kate Schimmelpfennig finished the night with seven points. Tristian Shull had five, and both Elsie Lange and Andi Scott finished with two.

“It was a heck of a game,” Watson said. “And a great effort on our part.”

Keokuk had two players go off on the scoring end. Abby Wolter scored 30, and Kayde Martin had 29.

The Panthers followed Friday night’s loss with a 61-40 loss to No. 10 (2A) Mediapolis on Saturday.

Mt. Pleasant fell to 8-10 overall and 3-5 in conference play after the weekend’s games. Keokuk clinched the title with a 9-0 league record, and now sits 13-3 overall.