Panther boys drop pair

The Mt. Pleasant boys' basketball game had a couple of games this weekend, both of which ended in losses. The Panthers fell 56-34 in their Southeast Conference opener at Fairfield on Friday night and 48-42 at home against Pleasant Valley.

The Panthers played hung tight with the SEC favorites through halftime on Friday. Fairfield won the first quarter 15-6, and the Panthers cut hte lead to 29-21 at halftime.

Through the half, Mt. Pleasant was led by Sam Beatty, who had eight points in the first two quarters including a thunderous dunk in the first quarter. Rhett Zeglen and Tucker Johnson had two apiece.

The game was blown open in the third quarter when a combination of missed Mt. Pleasant shots and fastbreak points for Fairfield led to a 17-2 Trojan run. Mt. Pleasant won the fourth quarter 11-10 but the game was well out of hand by then.

'It'll sound funny but I don't think it was a lot of their defense that wasn't allowing us to score,” head coach Caleb Akey said after the game. 'We were just missing shots. They do play pretty good defense but when we would get a look that we wanted, it just wasn't falling. That's pretty frustrating.”

Akey also gave credit to the Trojans, who handed Mt. Pleasant its first conference loss since the 2015-15 season.

'They are probably the favorite,” Akey said. 'They return almost everybody. They've got a good coach and they got second place last year, so it makes sense that they're the favorite and they proved they are tonight.”

Beatty finished the game with 13 points on 5-14 shooting and 1-1 from three-point range. Brody Bender scored five points off the bench. Johnson finished with four points. Zeglen had four points and four rebounds. Clayton Lowery, Keegan Kohorst, Rylan Seberg and Riley McQuiggen had two each.

The Panthers were without starter Jaxon Hoyle in Saturday's game after a lower body injury during the Fairfield bout. Bender started in his place.

Mt. Pleasant had a hot start on Saturday against a Class 4A opponent. Mt. Pleasant jumped out to an 11-6 lead after the first quarter and the Panthers led 23-20 at the half. Beaatty and Bender each had five points at the break.

Pleasant Valley scrapped back in the third quarter to take a 34-30 lead, and held on in the fourth quarter for the six-point win.

Beatty had 11 points and four rebounds in Saturday's loss. Kohors finished with nine points. Johnson had eight. Zeglen scored six. Bender finished with five, and Lowery had three.

Mt. Pleasant is now 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference. They'll hunt for their first win on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at West Burlington.