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Panther hoops drops 2
Fort Madison sweeps Mt. Pleasant in SEC doubleheader
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MT. PLEASANT — Both Mt. Pleasant basketball teams were looking for an upset over Fort Madison in Friday night’s Southeast Conference slate, but unfortunately for the hometown crowd, neither team could pull it out.
The Panther girls' team fell 42-22 against the first-place Hounds. The boys dropped their game 62-44.
The Mt. Pleasant girls were suffocated in the first quarter, as the Panthers scored just two points in the opening eight minutes to get into a 13-2 hole early.
For the next two quarters, Mt. Pleasant made things interesting. The Bloodhounds were up 26-9 at the half, but the Panthers had the game down to an 11-point deficit late in the third before a couple of late Bloodhound scores made it 34-19 at the third horn. Fort Madison would never let the Panthers get any closer.
“We've been struggling all year to put four quarters together, and it was a struggle tonight,” said Panther girls basketball coach Curt Watson. “We had patches where we did really good, and then we had patches where we just kind of had luls and stuff.”
Alexa Fuller led the Panthers with 13 points in the loss. Abby Carthey scored four points. Charise Auwerda finished with three, and Addison Clark had two.
On the boys’ side, Fort Madison held a 17-11 lead after one quarter, and the game was a seven-point contest in the final 30 seconds. Fort Madison used two offensive rebounds in the last 10 seconds to create an opportunity for a halftime buzzer-beater, putting the score at 31-22 at the break.
“We're down seven with the last possession, and we give up a couple offensive rebounds and they get a put back going into half,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Eric Rawson after the game. “Our goal, certainly, coming out of half, is let's get some stops and get some stuff going offensively, but it obviously went the other direction.”
Fort Madison controlled the second half, stretching the lead to 45-33 after three quarters before turning it on in the fourth.
Noah Lange scored 14 points to lead Mt. Pleasant. He also yanked down 11 rebounds to secure a double-double.
Ryan Helling scored 13 points in the loss. Aiden Humble and Brody Clark each scored six. Grayson Walker finished with three points, and Keegan Heaton ended the night with two points and nine rebounds.
The Panther girls fell to 3-10 overall and 1-6 in conference play with the loss. The boys are now 1-11 overall and 0-7 in league play.
