Panthers sweep Trojans

MT. PLEASANT ­- The Mt. Pleasant Panthers owned the night in a Southeast Conference doubleheader against Fairfield on Friday. The Panther girls upset Fairfield 47-33, avenging an 18-point loss from their first meeting, and the Mt. Pleasant boys won an overtime thriller, 49-48.

It was all Mt. Pleasant in the girls' game, a surprise for anyone who watched the first meeting. The Panthers came out hot, leading 14-9 after the first quarter and 29-16 at halftime. The Panthers didn't let Fairfield sniff a comeback in the second half, wining the final two periods 18-17.

'It's really great, because we've been playing these same girls since probably like, fourth grade, middle school and now in high school,” said Panther senior Isabel Ashton. 'They've had us the last couple times, so it feels good to get this one for sure.”

Emma Huckabone scored 10 points to lead Mt. Pleasant. Ashton and Tristian Shull scored nine apiece, and Shull led the squad with three assists.

Andrea Lopreato had six points and 10 rebounds. Avery Sutter scored six points. Lydia Stewart had three. Elli Liechty and Sydni Coleman each had two.

'We actually played all four quarters to the best of our ability, and we came out with a ‘W,'” Stewart said. 'I think we're playing together as a team and it's working out. I think we should have played like that the whole season.”

The Panther girls have now won three games in a row for the first time all year, and have tallied three of their top five point totals all season over that timeframe.

'The girls are starting to figure it out, I think,” said MP head coach Curt Watson. 'They are talking more than they ever have in practice about what we can and can't do. I think they're just figuring out basketball.”

For Fairfield, it was a night of frustration for a team that was playing some of its best ball of the season.

'We never had the emotional turnaround that we needed,” head coach Jeff Miller said. 'I told them, every time you step on the court, you've got to lace them up and be ready to go, and not assume that ‘we're good so we're just going to beat you.' I can't assume that that's what was going on or not, but I can tell you the emotion of the girls was really flat.”

Fairfield was led by Danielle Breen and Shalyn Drish, who each had nine points. Destiny Gridley scored six. Delaney Breen had four points and six rebounds. Darby Kaska scored three points, and Olivia Jones had two points and four blocked shots.

The boys' game was one for the ages. Much like in the girls' game, the underdogs didn't back down, this time on the Fairfield side. The Trojans boys led 13-10 after one quarter, and the game was tied 20-20 at the break, a shock for the home Panther fans after Mt. Pleasant had just beaten the Trojans in their own house last month.

'How many teams with two wins would play this hard in February? There are a lot of people that are going to cash it in and quit, but these kids aren't doing that,” said Fairfield coach Mick Flattery. 'That's a credit to the seniors, and to the locker room, because they've got good chemistry.”

Mt. Pleasant hit two 3-pointers to start the third quarter, but Fairfield went on a 16-4 run to end the period and took a 36-30 lead into the fourth quarter. Mt. Pleasant came back to tie it at 43-43 and a potential game-winning half court shot by Fairfield's Drew Martin bounced off the rim, sending the teams into overtime.

The game was tied 48-48 after Trojan freshman J.J. Lane hit one of two free throw attempts with 13 seconds remaining in the extra period. Keegan Kohorst drove the ball to the basket in the final seconds, and was fouled with 1.1 seconds left. His first free throw came up well short, leaving the biggest pressure shot of the game on his fingertips.

'I haven't been making free throws lately, I just haven't,” Kohorst said. 'My touch has been off. I missed my first one, and I just had to take a deep breath. I was like, ‘I've shot thousands of free throws, I've got to hit one of these.'”

Kohorst hit nothing but net on his second attempt, and the celebration was on in Mt. Pleasant - a celebration that was nearly interrupted when Fairfield's Tate Allen threw up an almost full-court shot that hit backboard and rim before rolling innocently to the hardwood.

'We have a shooting drill that ends with a half-court shot every day now,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Caleb Akey. 'I see a lot of them go up, and when that one went up, it sure looked like it was going in.”

Mt. Pleasant was led by a 17-point night from Clayton Lowery. Brody Bender had nine. Kohorst, Brevin Wilson, Jaxon Hoyle and Konnor Peterson each scored five, and Jack Johnson had three.

Fairfield's Max Wheaton scored 12 poitns in the loss. Lane had 10. Martin finished with nine points and 11 rebounds. Elan Ledger scored six. Nathan Whitney had five points and four assists, and the duo of Carter Ferrel and Allen had three points apiece.