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Trojans topple MP again
Fairfield girls win third-straight nail-biter in Highway 34 rivalry
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD — Four of the last five showdowns between the Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant girls basketball teams had went right down to the final minute, and the Trojans and Panthers decided to make it five of the last six with yet another thriller.
Fairfield held off Mt. Pleasant for the third-time in a row, winning 45-44 on some clutch defense and a big late free throw by senior Maddy Martin, which helped deliver the Trojans their first Southeast Conference home win in four years.
Martin, who had the go-ahead 3-point play in the Trojans’ 47-43 victory at Mt. Pleasant on Jan. 9, grabbed a defensive rebound and got fouled with 38.3 seconds left, and the score knotted up at 44-44. After missing the first free throw, she sank the second to give the Trojans the lead for good.
“It’s definitely really scary,” said Martin after the game. “But I just look at my teammates who are encouraging me, and just take a deep breath, and relax.”
The Panthers had a couple of chances to win the game, including a shot at the buzzer that did go in off the fingertips of Paityn Ensminger, but Ensminger was called for a travel before the shot, it was waved off, and the Trojans were able to kill off the final second.
The Trojans had led for almost the entire game. Fairfield held an 18-11 advantage after one quarter, a 28-25 halftime advantage and a 40-37 lead after three.
Coach Brian Witzenberg credited the hot start for helping his team push through.
“The ball movement was really good in that first quarter,” Witzenberg said. “I’m not sure that we’ve had many quarters that we’ve scored 18 points all year in, so to see that was really big for us to set the tone.”
The player who set the tone the best was Faith Jones, who scored 14 points against the rival Panthers for the second-straight game, leading the Trojans to victory once again.
“I didn’t have a good warm up, honestly,” said Jones. “It kind of surprised me, and I don’t know, I just kept shooting, and my teammates were getting me open, so that helped a lot.”
Vanessa Kessel and Emma Metcalf scored eight points each for the Trojans. Martin finished with six. Anna McAvan and Lauren Martin scored three apiece, and Lenora Felt finished with two.
Mt. Pleasant was led by Abby Carthey’s 18 points. Abigail Shelangoski scored nine. Haylay Lydolph and Paityn Ensminger scored six apiece. Myah Starr had five, and Kynlee White finished with two.
The Panthers had come all the way back from a double-digit deficit, similar to what Fairfield did in the game at Mt. Pleasant, but the Panthers could never do more than tie the game in the final minutes.
“I thought we did a better job of not turning the ball over, but we just missed a lot of lay ups again,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson. “It’s just kind of the same thing that it has been.”
Fairfield moved to 4-13 overall and 2-7 in conference play with the win. Mt. Pleasant fell to 3-14 overall and 0-9 in league play.
