Panthers outlast Ottumwa

The season sweep of Ottumwa is complete. The Mt. Pleasant boys' basketball defeated the Bulldogs 47-39 in a home nonconference game on Monday night, a month and a half after a 63-55 win in Ottumwa in December.

Both teams struggled to find the basket in the first half. Mt. Pleasant led 6-4 after the first quarter, and held the Bulldogs under 10 points at halftime, leading 15-9. Tucker Johnson and Sam Beatty had five points apiece at the break.

'We were pleased with our defensive effort,” Panther head coach Caleb Akey said about the first half. 'We mixed up a little bit, playing man-to-man and 2-3 zone. Giving up nine points, we were pretty happy with. They did miss a couple layups and had a couple of open looks from three, but you're not going to make all your shots.”

The points picked up a bit in the third quarter. Rhett Zeglen started to heat up with a couple of three-pointers and the Panthers stretched their lead to 30-20.

Zeglen knocked down another three early in the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs had one big run in them, and eventually cut the lead down to three points. Mt. Pleasant's advantage was 38-35 with 2:32 remaining.

Mt. Pleasant didn't have their best night at the free throw line, but they did knock down a few when they needed to late. Even more frustrating for Ottumwa was a handful of offensive rebounds by the Panthers in the final minutes, a couple coming off of missed free throws.

'They don't stop,” says Akey. 'They keep playing, play to the whistle, play to the end of the game and play hard. That's the case there. It's easy on a free throw situation to just allow them to have the rebound, and we just decided right then we wanted it more.”

Zeglen finished the night with 15 points, 11 of which came in the second half. He shot 6-8 from the field and 3-5 from down town.

'That was nice,” Akey said after the game. 'To have Rhett be able to get a few ... he's been struggling from there this year, so it's nice for him to be able to get those shots up and make them, because he is capable of making them.”

Beatty had 14 points and five rebounds in the win. Johnson had 10 points. Keegan Kohorst had five points, three steals and two assists, and Jaxon Hoyle ended the night with three points.

Mt. Pleasant moved to 9-8 with the win. The Panthers will take a three-game winning streak into their Southeast Conference showdown with Washington on Friday, Feb. 8. The Panthers will also play at home against Indianola on Saturday, Feb. 9.