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Mt. Pleasant stomps Ottumwa, falls to West Burlington
Panther boys hoops adjusts to playing without star center
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — Monday night’s trip to Ottumwa brought both good and bad to the Mt. Pleasant boys basketball team.
The good was a dominant 64-36 road victory. The bad was another injury to senior center Noah Lange, who missed Tuesday’s 51-50 overtime loss to West Burlington, and will be missing the remainder of the season.
Lange, who missed the first month of the season due to previously suffered injuries, had given the Panthers a huge boost when he got back onto the court in January, but the team will now have to learn to play again without their 6’7“ leader.
“It was certainly an emotional day for everybody, and certainly me,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Eric Rawson. “He’s been with us for all four years, and has been through two ACLs, and a third one now. He’s just a great young man, and we just think the world of him.”
Lange had 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting on Monday against the Bulldogs. Aiden Humble and Ryan Helling co-led the team with 15 points. Isaiah Lange scored 10 points. Brody Clark had nine. Keegan Heaton scored two, and Grayson Walker added one.
On Tuesday, back at home, the Panthers took a 10-0 lead, and stayed in front 19-13 after one quarter, thanks in large part to four 3-pointers by Helling.
West Burlington, though, kept fighting back. The Panthers were up 26-22 at halftime and 35-28 after three, but the Falcons stormed back to take the lead in the fourth quarter.
Isaiah Lange had the play of the night when Mt. Pleasant turned to him for a final shot in regulation. The sophomore flew toward the basket and laid the ball up at the regulation buzzer to send the game into overtime tied 42-42.
Foul trouble and some clutch Falcon shots doomed the Panthers in the overtime period. Isaiah Lange fouled out early in the extra period, and despite two long 3-pointers by humble down the stretch, the Panthers went down two possessions and didn’t have a final shot at the win.
“They didn’t quite, and again, I think a lot of that rubbed off from Noah Lange being with us this year,” said Rawson. “That’s contagious stuff.”
Isaiah Lange finished with 18 points in the loss. Helling had 12. Humble scored nine. Lowery finished with six. Carter Gehling had three, and Clark finished with two.
The Panther boys are now 9-10 overall. Mt. Pleasant is 4-5 in conference play, with a shot to lock up at least a tie for third if they can beat Fairfield (2-16, 1-9) on the road on Friday night.
