Panthers find groove against Fairfield

MT. PLEASANT — Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield girls basketball were tight knit after a quarter in their Southeast Conference contest Tuesday night, as both squads struggled to put the ball in the bucket.

That narrative evolved for the Panthers between the second and third quarter, as they catapulted to a 49-25 victory over the Trojans, completing the season sweep.

Fairfield got off to a good start in the game, but the Trojans couldn’t sustain it.

The Trojan’s Ashlyn Lisk buried a three to open up the scoring at the 6:27 in the first.

A scoring drought from then and over the next four minutes, was a burden for the Trojans all night long.

“We rushed shot tonight,” Fairfield head coach Rebecca Becker said. “The girls learned tonight too how easy it is to shoot yourself out of it. It only takes three or four mistakes and a two point game turns into 12 or 20 point game.”

Despite the scoring woes, the Fairfield defense was able to negate the Mt. Pleasant offense.

Over that four minutes, Mt. Pleasant scored just eight points, with Tristian Shull scoring the Panthers final points with a free throw at the 2:10 mark.

“Sometimes we have games where our shots are not falling and we just try to keep getting good shot,” Mt. Pleasant’s Kate Schimmelpfennig said. “Our coaches say look for a great shot not just a good shot.”

In the second, the Panthers went to work.

After a layup by the Panther’s Andrea Lopreato, Lisk dropped in another three to make it a two point game with, 10-8, with 6:41 to go but that is as close that the Trojans would come.

Once again, the Trojans wouldn’t score until the final minute of the period, with Lisk hitting a pair from the stripe.

Meanwhile, Mt. Pleasant put together its best scoring quarter of the night with 19 points. Lopreato and Shull combined for 14 of the Panthers 19, with Kate Schimmelpfennig, Mackenzie Musselman and Alex Scott scoring as well.

“It’s good to see that we’re finding our groove here at the end of the season,” Schimmelpfennig said. “It’s always fun when your teammates are scoring and everyone is contributing.”

At the break, the Panthers held onto a 27-10 lead.

Fairfield could never make up the difference in the second half.

Grace Lyon opened the scoring for the Trojans with a two to make it 27-12.

The two teams traded baskets back and forth for much of the quarter and were knotted at 6-6 for the period.

Maddie Jones gave the Fairfield a bit of a spark with 2:45 remaining on a three ball to make it 34-19, but back-to-back lay-ins by the Panthers pushed the lead up to 38-19.

“We came out kind of slow in the first quarter and we missed some easy ones,” Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson said. “In that second quarter we really got a lot better. I thought the third got shaky there, but we picked it up again. Overall, I thought we had pretty good effort tonight.”

In the fourth, Fairfield once against scored first, but Mt. Pleasant followed with 11 unanswered to increase the lead.

Fairfield was outscored in the fourth 11-6.

Lopreato finished with a game-high 20 for the Panthers. Shull followed with 16. Schimmelpfennig and Hailey Parrott each had four. Alex Scott ended with three and Mackenzie Musselman had two.

Fairfield was led by Lisk with 10 points. Savannah Hollander followed with eight. Maddie Jones ended with three. Grace Lyon and Addison Ferrel each had two.

“We’re doing good things,” Becker said. “We have to continue to demand excellence for us to grow as a team.”

Mt. Pleasant moves to 9-10 on the season, while Fairfield drops to 2-14.