March 29, 2024

Balanced attack continues to propel PCM girls

BAXTER — For the second straight game, the Prairie City-Monroe girls basketball team has gotten a balanced effort at the offensive end. And done so without taking a 3-pointer.

The end result was another easy victory on the road.

The Mustangs used a 9-0 first-quarter run to grab control and then put Collins-Maxwell/Baxter away for good with a 13-2 spurt in the third. That was good enough to give the only undefeated team left in the Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference a 59-29 victory.

Three players scored in double-figures and another starter finished with nine as the Mustangs had 17 assists on their 22 field goals to improve to 5-0 in conference play.

“It’s been a huge lift to our team,” said PCM coach Bret Grier about the balanced scoring. “Not because (Rachel) Freland and (Courtney) VanHouweling can’t carry the load, but when they see the other players can pick up the slack, they will figure out that they don’t have to carry the load. It also gives confidence to Rachel Gulling and our sophomores.”

Freland did finish with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists and VanHouweling also added 12 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals. But the Mustangs (5-2, 5-0) also got 11 points and five boards from Katie VandeWall and nine points from Gulling. Kayla Jennings pulled down six boards, too.

PCM now also sits as the only unbeaten team in HOIAC play.

Nevada dropped its first conference game Friday following a 44-40 loss to Greene County. Nevada, Saydel, Gilbert and Greene County are all currently one game back of PCM at 4-1.

The Raiders fell down by 10 after one quarter and never recovered. CMB coach Jamie Zabel says his squad turned it over too much and missed too many open shots.

It was the fifth time in seven games this year that CMB was held to less than 40 points. The Raiders were 9-of-34 from the floor and 8-of-16 from the foul line.

“We get good looks. We just don’t knock them down,” Zabel said. “We turned it over early. That is uncharacteristic of us to turn it over more than 20 times. The effort was good defensively.”

CMB freshman Brianda Bane led the Raiders with 10 points and nine boards, while junior Bridget Hurley pulled down 10 rebounds.

Senior Lexi Breon, a second-team all-conference player a year ago, scored just two points and was 0-for-7 from the floor. She did have eight boards.

“We wanted to focus on trying to stop her,” said Grier of Breon. “Gulling and (Jayci)Vos do a nice job defensively. We went 1-3-1 on our makes and man-to-man on our misses. That may have helped slow her down a little bit. She is a really nice ball player.”

CMB (0-7, 0-5) trailed by 10 after the first quarter and by 13 at the break, but it wasn’t until the 13-2 run in the third that put CMB out of reach of a comeback, according to Zabel.

“We started slow again. And then they threw a haymacker at us and it turned the game completely into a rout,” Zabel said. “We played well overall. We just can’t turn it over. The long rebounds lead to layups and the turnovers lead to easy buckets, too.

“(PCM) might be the real deal. That is a very good team. One of these days, things will go our way and the shots will start to fall.”

CMB’s next game will be 6 p.m. Tuesday at home against South Hamilton (1-4, 1-4). PCM tries to move to 6-0 in conference play Tuesday when it travels to North Polk for a 6 p.m. tip off.

PCM  16-14-15-14—59
CMB 6-11-6-6—29
PCM (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP) — Gulling 4-0-1-3-9, VanHouweling 4-0-4-2-12, Freland 5-0-5-1-15, Vos 1-0-0-1-2, Hugen 0-0-0-0-0, VandeWall 3-0-5-4-11, Stafford 1-0-0-0-2, Timmins 0-0-0-0-0, Jennings 2-0-0-1-4, Waddell 0-0-0-1-0, Rodgers 0-0-0-1-0, VanDyke 0-0-0-0-0, Townsend 0-0-0-0-0, Broderson 2-0-0-0-4. Totals 22-0-15-14-59.
CMB (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP) — Ziesman 1-0-1-0-3, Baldwin 0-0-0-0-0, Schmitz 0-0-0-1-0, Jessen 0-0-0-0-0, Ritter 0-0-1-0-1, Hurley 1-1-1-4-4, Larson 1-1-1-3-4, Eslinger 2-0-1-2-5, Bane 4-1-1-5-10, Breon 0-0-2-2-2. Totals 9-3-8-16-29.