Panthers skate by Ottumwa

OTTUMWA -- Shots were falling for the Mt. Pleasant boys' basketblal team in Ottumwa on Monday night, and a nice performance from the defense aided the Panthers to a 63-55 victory. Mt. Pleasant jumped on the Bulldogs early and held off a late run to pick up their third win in the last four games.

The Panthers were moving the ball well in the first quarter and that led to points from five different Panthers in the first eight minutes. Mt. Pleasant led 16-8 after the first quarter, led by Rhett Zeglen, who scored seven-straight points to close the period out including a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Rylan Seberg came in and lit the Bulldogs up in the second quarter. Seberg hit a trifecta of three-pointers, all from the corner, for nine points, which led the Panthers at halftime.

'Rylan came in and gave us some big minutes and played well defensively,” said head coach Caleb Akey. 'Everyone sees the threes, but he was outsized by a ton on the block and he played defense pretty well, and took a charge, and things like that.”

Mt. Pleasant led 33-19 at the half, and were able to stretch the lead to 46-31 at the end of the third quarter. Sam Beatty began to dominate in side, scoring nine points in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs stormed all the way back from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to make it just a five-point game in the final two minutes. Mt. Pleasant hit their free throws late, however, and got the lead back up to eight points by the final buzzer.

The Panthers had a great day shooting the ball, going 22-33 on the day and 6-11 from three-point land. Sam Beatty led the way with 17 points on 7-9 from the field. Tucker Johnson had 13 points on the night, and Seberg finished with 10.

Zeglen finished the night with nine points, as did Keegan Kohorst. Brody Bender scored five points on the night and finished the game with eight rebounds. Clayton Lowery was the only other Panther to see the court.

Mt. Pleasna tis now 3-4 on the season. They'll look to get above .500 in Southeast Conference play on Friday, Dec. 21, as they put their 1-1 SEC record on the line against Ft. Madison. That game will be at home.