CMB boys end long losing streak against Mustangs

MONROE — Collins-Maxwell/Baxter senior Tommy Galloway admitted the Raiders have tried to model their program after rival Prairie City-Monroe.

The Mustangs’ success over the years is undeniable, and Galloway hopes one day CMB can get to their level consistently.

For now, Galloway and his teammates will enjoy their first win over the Mustangs in many years.

Trailing by five at halftime, the Raiders rallied to beat PCM 56-46 in front of a loud and energetic crowd at PCM High School.

Three players scored in double-figures on the offensive end and the Raider defense was nearly perfect.

And the end result was an impressive win over the Mustangs, who came into the night sitting in first place in the Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference standings.

It was CMB’s first win over PCM in at least 15 tries. The closest the Raiders got during that stretch was a 43-38 loss back in the 2007-08 season.

“This is a statement for us. The seniors have not beaten PCM so it’s big in that way,” said Galloway, who finished with a game-high 15 points. “We try to model our team around them and the success that they’ve had. They have had a good program for years and this win was big for us.”

CMB (7-8, 6-7) has gone 6-3 since starting the season 0-5. The Raiders have won four of their last five games.

On the flip side, PCM (12-4, 11-2) had its three-game win streak snapped. The Mustangs also dropped their first HOIAC game since falling to Roland-Story back on Dec. 5.

PCM’s biggest issue continues to be the lack of offense within the half-court system.

“We have to make baskets. We have a hard time doing that. We were a little sluggish for some reason,” PCM coach Fred Lorensen said. “I don’t know what it was for sure, but we were just stagnant. We tried to switch things up in the second half with some more movement, but that didn’t do us a lot of good either.”

Neither had much offense going in the opening quarter as PCM led 8-7 through 8 minutes. A Trey Lindsay 3-pointer at the buzzer helped the Mustangs to a 19-14 lead at halftime.

The third quarter couldn’t have gone much better for the Raiders. CMB scored 14 points total in the first two frames but erupted for 21 in each of the final two quarters. And they outscored PCM 42-27 in the second half.

After Logan Gilman scored to put PCM up seven, CMB went on a 15-3 run to take control of the game. Included in that key stretch was a pair of 3-pointers by Bryce Kemp and Galloway and Kemp also converted a 3-point play that put the Raiders up five with 2 minutes to go in the third quarter.

They began the fourth with back-to-back triples from Joey Nissen and Galloway to take their largest lead of the game at 41-29.

“It was a key stretch. We don’t want to be volume shooters. We want to be more efficient,” CMB coach Scott Brummel said. “We took a good number of 3s in the first half but weren’t hitting them. In the second half, we starting hitting them and that opened the offense up for us.”

The Mustangs didn’t go down without a fight. Chase Keuning’s jumper cut the CMB lead to seven, but Seth Balke hit 3-of-4 from the line on the Raiders’ next two possessions to push the lead back to 10.

But consecutive 3-pointers by Gilman and Lindsay shaved the Mustangs’ deficit to just four with 2:03 to play.

That’s as close as PCM would get though. CMB put away the win at the foul line, where it connected on 10-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final 1:39.

“They did a nice job of making free throws down the stretch. We got it down to four and had a chance to do something, but we couldn’t finish the deal,” Lorensen said. “We just had too many empty possessions where we didn’t get a shot up at all or didn’t take a good shot. At the same time, they were making some shots and that’s a bad combination for us.”

The Raiders made 17-of-34 from the floor and 18-of-24 from the line, but Brummel credited his team’s defense as the biggest reason for the victory. And the first responsibility for any defense playing against PCM is finding a way to contain Gilman.

“Our defense was it tonight,” Brummel said. “We did a good job of taking Gilman’s first read away. We made him move off his spot. That’s one of the better defensive performances we have had this year. We gave up too many offensive rebounds though.”

Lindsay led the Mustangs with 15 points, six rebounds and four steals. Gilman added 14 points and eight boards, while Chase Keuning scored nine points and Ricky Reeve corralled 10 rebounds.

Kemp complimented Galloway’s 15 points with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Balke had just four points through 28 minutes of game time but finished with 13 and also had seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Balke scored nine of his 13 points from the foul line in the final 3:46.

The loss drops the Mustangs into second place in the HOIAC standings. Gilbert improved to 12-1 in conference play after its 64-49 win over South Hamilton. PCM is now 11-2.

The Raiders travel to South Hamilton to face the defending conference champions in Jewell at 7:30 p.m. Friday. PCM stays home to face North Polk.

CMB 7-7-21-21—56
PCM 8-11-9-18—46
CMB (FG/3pt) — Galloway 5/2-3-3-15, Balke 2-9-1-13, Kemp 4/1-3-3-12, Stover 2-0-1-4, Girard 1-0-3-2, Gunderson 2-0-1-7. TOTALS 17/4-18-56.
PCM (FG/3pt) — Greiner 0-0-1-0, Reeve 2-2-4-6, Lindsay 5/4-1-5-15, Gilman 5/2-2-5-14, Pendroy 1-0-2-2.