Freland surpasses 1,000 in PCM’s win over CMB

MONROE — It didn’t take long for Rachel Freland to clinch her scoring milestone Tuesday night against Collins-Maxwell/Baxter.

The Prairie City-Monroe senior buried a 3-pointer early in the first quarter that brought several Mustang fans to their feet. That bucket put Freland past 1,000 career points and her game-high 19 led Class 3A No. 15 PCM to a 52-31 win over the Raiders.

“I am glad it’s over so we can now just concentrate on the rest of the season,” Freland said. “It’s a nice milestone because not everyone gets to achieve it, but I had great teammates in both schools and with different teams.”

Freland started her high school career at West Marshall where she scored her first 572 points in 2.5 years. She put in 174 points during the second half of last season at PCM and has scored 272 so far this year.

“She worked on her game when she was really young and you can see that,” PCM coach Bret Grier said. “She’s played a lot of basketball for a long time. The hard work has paid off. It’s a nice honor for her to have.”

The Mustangs trailed CMB 8-5 after one quarter but used a 15-4 advantage in the second to grab momentum.

Rachel Gulling hit a pair of 3-pointers and Courtney VanHouweling added a triple and a long jumper to give the Mustangs a lead they wouldn’t surrender.

“I thought our man-to-man pressure would be enough to get us going in the first quarter, but we came out flat defensively and we were stagnant offensively,” Grier said. “It was a much better second-half that’s for sure.”

PCM led 20-12 at the break and pushed the lead to 11 after three quarters. A 20-10 advantage in the fourth catapulted the final margin to 21.

“The 21 points tonight is better than the 30 they beat us by in Baxter earlier this year, so I guess we improved,” CMB coach Jamie Zabel said. “We turned it over under their basket four times and that led to four layups.”

The four layups were converted by Freland as she recorded four steals at the front end of PCM’s full-court press.

Freland scored back-to-back buckets midway through the third to put PCM up by 12. She later scored the Mustangs’ first nine points of the fourth and that extended the home team’s advantage to 41-24.

“She’s so lengthy and has great anticipation.” Grier said of Freland. “She’s like a free safety in football. She reads eyes and does a very good job at creating steals off our press.”

PCM (12-5, 12-2) went to a “delay” offense with 7 minutes to play in the game. It was something the coaching staff just recently added to the playbook, but it might be needed more moving forward.

“That’s something we just put in, and it’s something we think we might need in the upcoming games,” Grier said. “And you never know when you might need it in the tournament.”

CMB (2-15, 2-12) has played well early in a lot of games this year. But the Raiders can’t seem to hold the momentum consistently.

“We played well when they were in the man-to-man, but when they went to a 1-3-1 zone we started to stop looking inside and that hurt us,” Zabel said. “We threw too many skip passes that led to layups at the other end.”

VanHouweling, who scored her 1,000th point last Tuesday against Roland-Story, finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in the win. Gulling chipped in eight points and four boards as well.

CMB senior Lexi Breon scored all eight of the Raiders’ points in the first quarter and finished with a team-high 13 in the loss. Carter Larson and Brianda Bane each scored six points as well.

The win for PCM keeps the Mustangs even with Nevada at 12-2 in HOIAC play. Gilbert (11-3) and Saydel (10-3) also are still in the alive for the league championship.

The Mustangs host North Polk on Friday, and CMB heads to South Hamilton.

CMB 8-4-9-10—31
PCM 5-15-12-20—52
CMB (FG/3pt) — Ziesman 1-0-2, Larson 2-2-6, Eslinger 2-1-5, Bane 3-0-6, Breon 6/1-0-13. TOTALS 14/1-3-31

PCM (FG/3pt) — Gulling 3/2-0-8, VanHouweling 5/2-0-12, Freland 7/2-3-19, VandeWall 2-1-5, Jennings 1-4-6, Vos 1-0-2. TOTALS 19/6-8-12-52.