MONROE — The Prairie City-Monroe boys basketball team adjusted its starting lineup over the holiday break.
Two games into the new starting five, PCM coach Fred Lorensen thinks the change is here to stay.
Senior Mark Bruxvoort put in a season-high 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, junior Elijah Sperfslage scored another 10 points and sophomore Andrew Van Ryswyk recorded a near double-double during the Mustangs’ 58-35 victory over North Polk during Heart of Iowa Conference play Friday night.
Lorensen inserted sophomore point guard Reed Worth into the starting lineup, and the four-guard lineup appears to be something the Mustangs will use moving forward.
“I think it will be OK,” Lorensen said. “Putting Reed into the lineup gives us another shooter with Elijah and Jackson. He has been playing well, and he helps get us into a more up-tempo style of play.”
Worth replaced junior Noah Lanphier in the starting lineup last Tuesday and the Mustangs nearly handed Class 2A No. 9 South Hamilton its first loss of the season. Worth dished out a team-high five assists and had three steals in the win over North Polk on Friday.
Lorensen said the lineup change wasn’t made because of something Lanphier wasn’t doing. The veteran head coach still plans to use Lanphier a lot with a second unit that is much taller and more dominant in the post.
“We moved Noah inside, and we think that change will be really good for him,” Lorensen said. “He has some nice post moves that will benefit us in the future.”
Bruxvoort played his best game of the season to help make up for the first off night of the season for junior Jackson Thomas.
Thomas came into the game averaging nearly 18 points per game, but North Polk held him to two points.
Bruxvoort made sure the Mustangs still came out on top. He scored nine of PCM’s first 12 points of the game. Bruxvoort’s effort, along with some crisp ball movement and nifty passing, helped the Mustangs get out to an early lead and the home team wasn’t challenged after pushing the lead to 17-8 after one quarter.
“We are trying to get them to do that better,” Lorensen said of the ball movement. “We have a lot of guys who like to dribble so we worked over break on trying to pass the ball around to get good shots. We did a nice job tonight.
“When we pass and cut, we can be really hard to guard. That’s something we will keep harping on. Hopefully we can keep getting better at it.”
Worth buried a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter to lift the Mustangs. A 12-4 advantage in the period helped PCM lead 29-12 at the break.
North Polk (2-8 overall, 1-5 in the HOIC) scored as many points (12) in the third quarter as it did in the entire first half, but the Comets were too far behind. PCM still outscored North Polk 29-23 in the final two quarters.
Sperfslage put in five of his 10 points in the first two possessions of the third quarter. He added three assists and three steals in the game.
Van Ryswyk tallied nine points, 11 rebounds and three steals for the Mustangs, who are now 5-3 overall and 5-2 in the HOIC.
North Polk 8-4-12-11 — 35
PCM 17-12-15-14 — 58
North Polk (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Markert 0-0-0-0, Peterson 0-1-3-1, Parkins 3/3-0-1-9, Lomica 5-2-1-12, Cupp 0-1-0-1, Capaldo 0-0-2-0, Deitch 1-0-1-2, Spaulding 1-0-1-2, Parker 1-0-1-2, Hood 1/1-0-0-3, McArthur 1/1-0-0-3, Twedt 0-0-1-0, Hammond 0-1-0-1. Totals 13/5-4-10-35.
PCM (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Sperfslage 3/1-3-0-10, Bruxvoort 7/1-2-0-17, Worth 2/2-0-0-6, Thomas 1-0-0-2, Van Ryswyk 4/1-0-3-9, Warrick 0-0-1-0, Boell 1-1-2-3, Van Wyk 1-0-0-2, Dredge 1-0-0-2, Lanphier 1-0-1-2, Brown 1-2-0-4, Van Dyke 0-1-0-1. Totals 22/5-9-7-58.