Mt. Pleasant tops New London

MT. PLEASANT — New year, no problem for Mt. Pleasant boys basketball.

The Panthers (6-3) have played some great ball through the first half of the season and they continued that trend on Monday night against the Tigers of New London (6-3), strutting away with a 61-40 victory.

Mt. Pleasant got on the board first and would trail just once in the non-conference contest.

Payton Hagans scored the first two points for Mt. Pleasant, dropping in a pair from the stripe. His name would be called an excess of times through the night as he led the offensive charge, pouring in a game high 33 points with nine boards.

“I just felt it,” Hagans said. “I started off with that first three. Once I hit the first one, I’m ready. I’m just confident. Confidence is key and you just gotta keep shooting. I just try to keep that up.”

The Panthers leap out to a 7-2 lead following a Hagans three, but New London answered back as Kade Benjamin and Brendan Richey combined for six straight to give the Tigers their lone lead of the night.

A Hagans deep ball gave the Panthers back the lead, 10-8 and Drake Anderson buried a three in the final moments to push the Panther’s lead to 13-8.

Mt. Pleasant continued to pour it on in the second, as Hagans connected from deep once again, kicking off a 13-5 run up until the midway point in the quarter and making it a 26-13 ballgame.

Two free throws from the Tigers Leo Gebauer cut the lead to 11, 26-15, but a Hagans three ball once again created space, 29-15.

The Tigers put together a run of their own, with Blaise Porter hitting a three ball to cap off a 8-0 run to make it a six point game, 29-23.

Mt. Pleasant took the momentum into the locker room though as Noah Lange scored the final bucket, giving the Panthers a 31-23 lead as the horn sounded.

Hagans had himself a first half for the Panthers, scoring 22 of their 31 points.

To start the second half, the two squads were neck and neck, but Mt. Pleasant would pull away late.

Halfway through the quarter, the Panther were leading the quarter 6-4, but New London wouldn’t score again until the final minute.

Between that span the Panthers built a 45-29 lead, on a 8-0 run. Mt. Pleasant held the Tigers to just six points in the third quarter.

In the fourth, the Panthers held their lead.

The Tigers were able to cut the lead to 14 at 51-37, but the Panther ended the game with a 8-3 run to steal it.

“I thought we had a really good week of practice,” Mt. Pleasant head coach Eric Rawson said. “For the most part, defensively, we really dug in and created turnovers. We rebounded well and obviously Payton Hagans had another big night. We got 11 games in 32 days, so the kids are dialed in and be got a big January ahead of us and we’re looking forward to it.”

Along with Hagans 33, Nate Stroud ended with eight points and seven boards. Aaiden Ashton finished with seven points and five rebounds. Carter Amos ended with six. Drake Anderson finished with three points. Owen Vansickel and Noah Lange each tallied two points.

For the Tigers, Benjamin finished with 14 points in the loss. Porter added 12. Richey followed with 10. Gebauer ended with four.

“There’s no excused,” New London head coach Bryant Porter said. “We just let it get away from us. We couldn’t take care of the basketball and couldn’t run anything. We had bad body language. I felt like we could compete, we just kind of let it get away. I just want them to show a little bit of heart. Face that adversity.”

Mt. Pleasant will take on Fort Madison (2-5) on Friday, while New London will match up with Notre Dame (6-2).