MONROE — Part of the gameplan for the Prairie City-Monroe girls’ basketball team in the fourth quarter of its game against Saydel was to attack the two Eagle players who had four fouls.
One of those players was Katie Schmidt, who scored a game-high 21 points through the first three quarters of the game.
Trailing by seven, Schmidt drove the ball to the bucket early in the fourth quarter, but a collision with PCM junior Sloan Hjortshoj resulted in an offensive foul and a fifth personal for the game.
Schmidt went to the bench for good with 6:37 to go in the game, and PCM took advantage with a big fourth quarter during a 56-42 win during Heart of Iowa Conference play on Friday night.
“It was big. We talked about that. We wanted to attack the two girls with four fouls,” PCM coach Jeff Lindsay said. “It turned out to be the other end of the court. Sloan did a nice job stepping in and taking the charge. We did a nice job of rotating there. It was a big moment in the game.”
PCM turned a seven-point lead into a 14-point win with a 13-5 advantage in the fourth. Sophomore Regan Freland was held in check for most of the game, but her 10 points in the final period put the finishing touches on the Mustangs’ first conference win of the season.
Freland finished with a game-high 17 points, but freshman Lilli Baird added a career-high 16 points and the Mustangs used a big second quarter to gain a double-digit lead at halftime.
“I thought we shored things up defensively after the first quarter,” Lindsay said. “Once we got everyone on the same page, things got shut down real quick.”
Baird, making her first career start, had the hot hand early. She kept the Mustangs in the game while Freland was working her way through a defense geared toward shutting her down.
A Baird 3-pointer tied the game at 6-all, and her jumper made it 10-8 with 2:52 to play in the quarter. PCM never trailed again, and Baird scored five more points in the frame to give her team an 18-16 lead after 8 minutes.
“I personally think she is just getting more comfortable,” Lindsay said. “She is not afraid to shoot it. She has a good shot selection, too. As she gets a little more into playing at this level and at this speed, her 3-pointer won’t be the only part of her game.”
Baird opened the second quarter with another trey, and junior Morgan Uhlenhopp scored on back-to-back possessions to push PCM’s lead to seven.
Junior Camryn Wignall then buried two triples to extend the advantage to 11, and the Mustangs led by 12 at halftime. Wignall finished with nine points, four assists and two steals in the win.
“Camryn hit some big 3-pointers for us,” Lindsay said.
Freland had only four points at halftime but buried a 3-point on the first possession of the second half.
Schmidt answered with a trey of her own, and Saydel rallied to get to within six after three quarters.
The Eagles hit three 3-pointers in the quarter and stayed close because of second-chance opportunities. Saydel out-rebounded the Mustangs 41-37, and PCM turned it over 14 times.
“We have got to have a desire to want to rebound. We need to put ourselves in better positions,” Lindsay said.
“We are still in this mode where we have to fastbreak all the time. We aren’t that kind of team. That is not what this team is about. We will run when we can, but we don’t have the type of ability right now to be able to just get out and run the open floor constantly.”
PCM turned the close game into a double-digit win by scoring 11 of the first 14 points of the fourth quarter.
After Schmidt fouled out, Freland put in nine consecutive points to go up 54-40. The Eagles wouldn’t get any closer.
Freland finished with 17 points, five rebounds, five steals, three assists and two steals.
Schmidt led all scorers with 21 points. She was the only Saydel player in double figures.
While rebounding was an issue for the Mustangs as a team, Uhlenhopp did grab 11 boards and added four assists and two steals. Hjortshoj added six points, six rebounds and three steals.
PCM improved to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the HOIC. Saydel fell to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
The Mustangs host Pella Christian (2-1) at 6 p.m. Monday in Monroe.
Saydel 16-5-16-5 — 42
PCM 18-15-10-13 — 56
Saydel (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Jayda Tolentino 1-0-1-2, Hannah Bowman 2/1-2-4-7, Destiny Butters 2-0-1-4, Alexis Carney 1-0-3-2, Daleaney Shinn 0-0-1-0, Alle Thompson 2/2-0-0-6, Katie Schmidt 6/3-6-5-21, Emily Lowe 0-0-4-0. Totals 14/6-8-19-42.
PCM (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Camryn Wignall 3/3-0-3-9, Sloan Hjortshoj 3-0-4-6, Lilli Baird 6/4-0-1-16, Megan Cowman 0-0-1-0, Sierra Foster 0-0-1-0, Regan Freland 6/1-4-3-17, Kate McCarthy 0-0-2-0, Morgan Uhlenhopp 2-2-1-6, Emma George 1-0-1-2. Totals 20/8-8-17-56.