Rashid stuns MP with four-point play

It's not something you see every day, a basketball game ending on a game-winning four-point play, but that's exactly what happened on Friday night at Mt. Pleasant High School. Unfortunately for Panther fans, Mt. Pleasant was on the bad side of one of the most incredible plays of the season.

Trailing 55-52 with the clock about to hit zero, Ft. Madison' s Logan Rashid grabbed an offensive rebound, sprinted behind the three-point line and threw up a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer. Not only did he make the shot, but he was fouled on the play and sank the game-winning free throw with no time left on the clock.

After stretching their lead to three points on a pair of Keegan Kohorst free throws with 11.5 seconds left, Mt. Pleasant set their defense to focus on Rashid, who had hit a buzzer-beater three before the halftime buzzer as well, but a missed three-pointer from the corner caused the ball to fall right in Rashid's hands, and caused the MP defense to scramble.

'We didn't rotate well on the other guys and they had a wide open three, which fortunately they missed, but as the ball was in the air, we didn't go box out very well,” said head coach Caleb Akey. 'We kind of followed the ball instead of boxing out, so the ball goes over our heads and they get it. He just made a nice play, and we fouled him, and it is what it is.”

A back-and-forth first half had Ft. Madison leading 25-23 after two periods. The Bloodhounds led 15-14 after the first quarter and outscored Mt. Pleasant 10-9 in the second, all this despite 11 first-quarter points from Sam Beatty. The Panthers did hold a 23-22 lead just before halftime, but Rashid banked in a three at the horn to give Ft. Madison a two-point advantage.

Mt. Pleasant came out hungry in the third quarter. Beatty put up nine more points in the third, and Kohorst eclipsed double-digits with four of his own to give him 11 points through three quarters, and the Panthers took a 40-37 lead.

Mt. Pleasant led throughout the fourth quarter and seemed to have the game under control but a couple of costly turnovers in the final two minutes helped the Bloodhounds fight back for a chance to win.

Kohorst led the Panthers in the fourth quarter, scoring five points, including the two free throws to put Mt. Pleasant up by three in the closing seconds, but Rashid's four-point play spoiled the Panthers' last home event before winter break.

Beatty finished the game with 23 points on 10-16 shooting. Kohorst had 17 points to give the Panthers two double-digit scorers.

Brody Bender had seven points and seven rebounds in the loss. Tucker Johnson had four points and four assists, and Rhett Zeglen finished the night with four points.

Jayden Feler scored 14 points for Ft. Madison. Rashid and Parker Denning had 12 each. Dayton Davis scored 10 points, and Brandon Keester had eight. Every point in the game was scored by a starter, as both benches went scoreless.

Mt. Pleasant is now 3-5 overall and 1-2 in the Southeast Conference. The Panthers will travel to Washington for their next game, on Friday, Jan. 4.

'There's nothing you can do but move forward,” Coach Akey said after the game. 'We've got the break here. The Washington game is a big game. It's at their place. We'll see if we can watch the film and break down what they're doing, and be ready to do what we gotta do.”