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Washington Evening Journal
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Mt. Pleasant hoops swept
Panthers downed at home in SEC doubleheader
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MT. PLEASANT — The Mt. Pleasant basketball teams had their hands full on Friday night as the Burlington Grayhounds rolled down Highway 34 for a Southeast Conference battle.
The Grayhounds came in tied for first in the SEC girls’ standings and second in the boys’ standings, showed why they’ve been a conference power this season. The Grayhound girls upended Mt. Pleasant 56-39, while the boys rolled past the Panthers 67-51.
The Panther girls stuck right with Burlington for most of the game. The Grayhounds led 12-11 after one quarter and 28-19 at halftime, and the Panthers scored a game-high 15 points in the third to split the quarter and go into the fourth still trailing by nine.
Burlington, however, tightened up on defense, and Mt. Pleasant could only muster five points in the final eight minutes.
“Our effort was tremendous,” said Mt. Pleasant girls coach Curt Watson. “For the whole game, it was the first time where I felt like we had a complete game.”
Mt. Pleasant was able to stay close, thanks in large part to a breakout performance by junior Paityn Ensminger, who went for 15 points and nine rebounds.
“Paityn Ensminger had the game of the year,” said Watson. “We put her on (Daphne) Brown, who’s a really good rebounder, and I thought she did a good job on her.”
The Panthers held the Grayhounds to 15 points less than last time the two teams met up, but Mt. Pleasant took a 17-point dip from the game early this year in Burlington.
Abigail Shelangoski was the second-leading Panther with seven points and 10 rebounds. Abby Carthey finished with six points. Haylay Lydolph had five. Kynlee White finished with four, and Myah Starr scored two.
The Panther boys got out to a strong start, jumping out to an early lead and holding that, albeit by just two points, at 15-13 after the first eight minutes of play. Burlington, however, responded with a 24-point second quarter and led the game 37-28 at halftime.
Much like in the girls’ game, the two teams tied in the third, leaving Mt. Pleasant down 51-42 with just eight minutes to go, but the Panther boys went cold down the stretch as well, scoring just nine points in the final period, their lowest quarter of the game.
Mt. Pleasant had the Burlington lead down to six points in the fourth quarter before going ice cold in the final five minutes.
“We just have stretches where weird things happen at times where we certainly don’t need them to,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Eric Rawson. “Whether it’s a stretch of turnovers or missed shots. We’re certainly better than the product that we put out on the floor tonight.”
Noah Lange and Aiden Humble each paced the team with 14 points in the loss. Isaiah Lange finished with 10 points. Ryan Helling had seven. Keagon Heaton scored four, and Brody Clark finished with two.
Mt. Pleasant fell to 3-9 overall on the girls’ side, and also 0-6 in conference play. The Panther boys are 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the league.
