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Washington Evening Journal
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Panthers swept at home
Mt. Pleasant basketball takes double SEC loss to Keokuk
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — The Keokuk basketball teams haven’t been solved yet in league play, and they certainly weren’t on Friday night in Mt. Pleasant.
The Chiefs swept the Panthers in Southeast Conference play, rolling 66-36 in the girls’ game and 69-41 on the boys’ side.
The Panther girls had an extremely slow start offensively and trailed 16-4 after one quarter of play. Mt. Pleasant battled back to cut that lead to eight, but the Chiefs pulled away in the final two minutes of the first half and led 29-14 at the break.
Mt. Pleasant showed some more toughness in the third quarter, chopping the Keokuk advantage down to nine points before the Chiefs, led by star senior Kendra Boatman, started to heat up.
“When we got them down a little bit, it was the Kendra Boatman show,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson. “Kendra is really good. When they need a shot, she can make it for them.”
Boatman finished with 33 points in the win for Keokuk. The Panthers, on the other hand, had seven scorers and nobody over seven points.
Kynlee White, Myah Starr and Abigail Shelangoski each scored seven points for Mt. Pleasant. Paityn Ensminger had six. Hayley Lydolph finished with five. Abby Carthey scored four, and Linzy Striegel added two.
“I thought our effort was really good tonight,” Watson said. “We told the girls in the locker room, that we have some things to clean up, but we’re this close to being a really good team.”
The Panther boys looked like they might have an extra pep in their step with returning starters Noah Lange and Ryan Helling back in the lineup for the first time this year, but any momentum was halted early by a dreadful night at the free-throw line.
Mt. Pleasant got to the line 29 times in the loss but hit just nine, missing 20 free throws in a game that never got back within single digits after a 19-3 Keokuk first quarter.
“We struggled really the entire night,” said Mt. Pleasant boys coach Eric Rawson. “If you miss 20 free throws, you’re not going to beat anybody but yourself.”
Though most of the Panthers struggled to put the ball in the basket, Aiden Humble did score 16 points, hitting three of his six 3-point shots on the day to lead Mt. Pleasant.
Isaiah Lange scored six points and pulled down a team-high five rebounds in the loss. Grayson Lowery finished with five points. Noah Lange scored four. Grayson Walker had three. Carter Gehling, Kaden Schadt and Brody Clark put in two apiece, and Caleb Shepherd finished with one.
The Panther girls fell to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in the SEC with the loss. The Mt. Pleasant boys are now 1-6 and 1-3.
