Ranked PCM pummels Hawks

MONROE — There is no denying who the go-to players are for the Prairie City-Monroe girls’ basketball team.

The Class 3A No. 12 Mustangs will rely heavily on seniors Rachel Freland and Courtney VanHouweling to provide the punch of an offensive attack that is predicated on getting easy buckets with pressure defense.

And in a 10-7 game against South Hamilton, it was VanHouweling and Freland that got the Mustangs going and the squad never looked back in winning its second straight Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference game here Tuesday.

VanHouweling began a 21-0 run with nine consecutive points and then Freland scored the first 10 points of the second quarter to cap the run and put the Mustangs up 31-7.

PCM went on to win 60-25, improving to 2-0 in the HOIAC.

“They will definitely carry us this year,” PCM coach Bret Grier said. “They are very good basketball players who have had lots of court time.”

Freland finished with a game-high 21 points, while VanHouweling added 15.

VanHouweling finished the second quarter with a pair of treys and the Mustangs led 50-12 at the break, creating little suspense to a second half that included a continuous clock for the entire 16 minutes.

Many of the Mustang points came in transition as they forced South Hamilton into a lot of turnovers and that created plenty of easy buckets at the offensive end.

“We don’t have a post presence or a back-to-the-basket type player on this team, so we want to get as many easy buckets in transition as we can,” Grier said. “We have a ton of speed and playing that way just fits our personnel.”

Freland scored five of the Mustangs’ seven points in the third before finding a seat on the bench for the remainder of the game.

South Hamilton, which won just two games all of last year, won the second half 13-10 after scoring eight in the final frame.

The Hawks (0-2, 0-2) never got to double-digits in any quarter and were led by Allyson Ervin’s 15 points.

With the game well in hand in the first half, Grier decided to clear his bench for the entire fourth quarter and also to work on things that need improvements.

One of those improvements involved man-to-man defense.

“We don’t play a lot of man defense, but I know at some point, a team is going to make us play it,” Grier said. “So we were able to work on it some tonight. And it was good to get some of the younger and inexperienced players into the game.

“We have some seniors to replace after this year and we need to start developing some depth for this year and get others ready for next year.”

Sophomore Katie VandeWall played her best game of the season, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Kayla Jennings chipped in six points and six boards.

VanHouweling pulled down five boards, dished out seven assists and had seven steals in the win, while Freland grabbed five boards, delivered four assists and collected three steals.

The Mustangs (2-1, 2-0) had 14 steals as a team on the night and dished out 16 assists on their 25 made buckets.

South Hamilton 7-5-5-8—25
PCM 21-29-7-3—60
South Hamilton (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP): Kayla Lucas 2-1-0-0-5, Ervin 6-1-2-0-15, Stangeland 1-0-1-2-3, Moss 1-0-0-0-2, Kali Lucas 0-0-0-1-0, Swenson 0-0-0-2-0, Garcia 0-0-0-2-0. Totals 10-2-3-7-25.
PCM (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP): Gulling 1-1-0-2-3, VanHouweling 6-3-0-1-15, Freland 9-2-1-0-21, VandeWall 4-0-0-1-8, Stafford 1-0-0-0-2, Timmins 1-1-0-0-3, Jennings 2-0-2-1-6, VanDyke 1-0-0-0-2, Broderson 0-0-0-1-0. Totals 25-7-3-6-60.