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Washington Evening Journal
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Trojans stave off Panthers
Fairfield boys come back from double-digit deficit, knock down Mt. Pleasant
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD — A red-hot Fairfield boys basketball team had to put everything they had into a Southeast Conference home battle with rival Mt. Pleasant on Friday night, but in the end, the Trojans got the job done and stayed right in the thick of the league race.
The Trojans had to storm back from an early double-digit deficit to knock off the hungry Panthers 71-62.
The win was extremely significant in the SEC race. The Trojans are now just one-half game out of first place, and could be tied at the top if Keokuk beats Washington on Tuesday.
"A couple teams go down in the next couple of days, we have a chance to be tied for first in conference," said Fairfield head coach Nate Perkins. "Whereas, last year we didn't win a game in conference. That's a great feeling."
The game certainly didn't start out promising for the Trojans. Mt. Pleasant burst out to an 11-point lead early on, capitalizing on a couple of early 3-pointers by Aiden Humble.
Fairfield would get back into the game, trailing by just seven, at 20-13, when the team went into the break. The Trojans led 34-31 at halftime, thanks in part to three thunderous first-half dunks by Eli Zillman.
"It was a lot, because we were down," Perkins said. "That kind of got us moving."
The Panthers quickly got the lead back in the third quarter, and led 53-52 going into the fourth. Mt. Pleasant held a lead with two minutes remaining, but the Trojans outscored the Panthers 9-0 down the stretch.
The run of the night came from Luke Konczal. Riley Perkins found Konczal at the wing for a huge go-ahead 3-pointer, and he followed that with a fast break layup to put the Trojans up 57-53.
"That felt pretty good," Konczal said. "I think that's probably the fifth three I've hit all year, so it felt good to see it go through the basket."
Mt. Pleasant, which had been scorching hot from downtown all night long, finally went cold, and didn't score for the rest of the night.
Konczal scored 16 points to lead Fairfield. Riley Perkins and Drew Myers scored 15 points apiece. Eli Zillman scored 14, and Ethan Bisgard scored 11.
The Panthers were led by two 21-point outings. Ian Reid and Aiden Humble each scored 21 points. Noah Lange had 12 points. Brody Clark finished with four points and eight assists. Ryan Helling scored three points, and Keegan Heaton finished with one.
As a team, Mt. Pleasant shot 11-for-21 from 3-point land.
"Mt. Pleasant is greatly improved from where they started, and they're going to continue to get better," said Coach Perkins. "If they can shoot like that, they can beat anybody."
Fairfield now sits at 4-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play. Mt. Pleasant is 1-8 and 0-5.
