Wild weekend for MP boys

The Mt. Pleasant boys' basketball team is playing its best basketball of the season. The Panthers proved that on back-to-back days, playing first-place Fairfield tight on Friday night and handing Class 2A No. 2 Camanche their first loss on Saturday.

The Panthers came up just short in their Southeast Conference game agianst the Trojans on Friday, dropping the game 47-38, but rebounded nicely in Cedar Rapids on Saturday with a 75-65 win in the Wells Fargo shootout.

After a blowout loss at Fairfield early in the season, Mt. Pleasant wanted to show it could hang with anyone in the conference on Friday night. The Panthers did just that, battling with Fairfield all game.

Sam Beatty had it going early. He scored six points in the first quarter and added four in the second to get to double digits before halftime. Fairfield led the game 10-9 after the first quarter, and it was tied at halftime, 18-18.

The third quarter was the doomsday quarter for Mt. Pleasant. The Panthers had trouble moving the ball on offense and scored just two points in the period. Fairfield turned Panther misses in to a handful of fastbreak points. Collin Breen scored eight points in the third and the Panthers trailed 33-20.

The Panthers didn't go quietly into the night. Mt. Pleasant scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to put the pressure back on the Trojans before an Austin Simpson layup stopped the run. Mt. Pleasant caused a lot of havoc for the Trojans with a full court press, and had a handful of chances to cut the lead back to one possession but Fairfield hang on to win the game.

'If we could just play quarters one, two and four, I'd be OK,” head coach Caleb Akey said after the loss. 'To be honest with you, I was so focused on our effort and energy tonight, and I thought that went away in the third quarter. Keegan got in some foul trouble and had to come out, and we get a little stagnant when that happens. They got into a zone, and we just couldn't hit shots.”

Beatty led the way with 15 points against Fairfield. Keegan Kohorst had 11 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter. Jaxon Hoyle scored five points. Brody Bender had three points and six rebounds, and both Tucker Johnson and Rhett Zeglen scored two.

Breen's 17 points led Fairfield. Drew Martin and Tristin Waugh had nine points each. Simpson scored six. Carson Crile had four, and Cole Engle scored two.

The Panthers had a mountain to climb on Saturday, and they took it head on.

Mt. Pleasant's offense was red hot in the first quarter. Kohorst put up eight points in the first eight minutes and the Panthers held a 19-12 lead over their undefeated foes.

The Panthers had a 10-point lead in the second quarter, but Camanche came climbing back to cut the lead to as little as two points. At the half, Mt. Pleasant still led, 32-28, and Kohorst was up to 12 points individually.

Jaxon Hoyle, who went scoreless in the fist half, had it going from three-point land in the final two quarters. He hit back-to-back threes in the third quarter to help the Panthers extend the lead to seven points. Camanche ended the third quarter on a 7-0 run, however, and it was 45-44 at the break.

Hoyle buried a couple more threes on the Indians in the fourth quarter, and that spark led to a 30-point fourth quarter for the Panthers. Mt. Pleasant closed the game out with free throws and picked up their biggest win of the season.

Kohorst scored 25 points and dished out six assiststo lead Mt. Pleasant in the win. He was 13-14 from the free throw line, and as a team, the Panthers went 23-26.

Hoyle had five threes in the second half and finished the game with 15 points. Johnson scored 13. Beatty had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Zeglen scored six, and Bender had four.

Camanche star Cameron Soenksen had 25 points and six assists. Jaxon White scored 11. Caleb Delzell had nine. Carson Seeser scored eight. Zayne Feller had six. Calvin Ottens scored four, and Ethan Buckely had two.

Mt. Pleasant went to 6-6 overall and 2-3 in the SEC after the weekend's games. They've got a spicy matchup tonight with undefeated New London, which entered Monday as the No. 4 team in Class 1A.