PCM took their skills to Baxter last night to face CMB, and returned home with a pair of wins in tow; notching 45-33 and 76-58 triumphs in the girls and boys games, respectively, in the doubleheader that was streamed live at kniakrls.com.
The Mustang girls were slow out of the gate, leading just 9-2 through one quarter, but pulled away in the second half.
“Our defense was what really kept us in check. We did a really nice job of playing good, sound, fundamental defense,” said PCM girls head coach Bret Grier.
“We did a good job of rebounding the basketball tonight, [but] where we struggled was turning over the basketball.”
PCM had 24 total turnovers, compared with 29 giveaways for CMB. Kelsey Townsend led the Mustangs in scoring with 16 points, and Abbi Gilson hit double digits as well with 10 points.
The PCM girls are now 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the Heart of Iowa Conference.
In the second game, the CMB boys sure didn’t play like an 0-6 team, trailing PCM by just five points at halftime, before the Mustangs distanced themselves by outscoring the Raiders by 13 points in the final two quarters.
“The second half was a lot better. I think we held them to seven points in the third quarter – where they had scored I think 35 points in the first half – so that was a lot better effort for us,” said Mustangs’ head coach Fred Lorensen.
“In the fourth quarter, it got a little bit sloppy, we kind of played like weren’t ahead for a short time, so we called a time-out and talked about that, and it was much better after the time-out.”
The game got off to a bit of an odd start, as PCM was assessed a technical foul for grabbing the rim during warm-ups. Scott Bruxvoort’s 31 points paced the Mustangs, as he dueled throughout the evening with CMB’s Josh Zeiser; who scored 27.
Hutch Burns also performed well in his first start since returning from injury to score 10 points – 4 of which came on a single play in which he was fouled and made a three-pointer.
The 76-58 win pushes the PCM boys to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in conference play. They’ll join the girls for another league match-up on Tuesday when they host North Polk.