Wignall guides PCM girls to easy home win over Rams

MONROE — Camryn Wignall has been working through a knee injury for what seems to be a few seasons now.

The Prairie City-Monroe senior tore her ACL and had knee surgery as a sophomore. She played through the injury last season as a junior but never got fully comfortable.

In her final season, she is finally pain free and is in a better place mentally. She is moving much better on the court so far this season, and the best game she has played this year led the Mustangs to a 53-25 home win over Greene County on Tuesday night.

Wignall finished with a team-high 15 points and added five rebounds, six assists and six steals during the Heart of Iowa Conference game.

“She’s been playing good defense and takes care of the ball, but we kept encouraging her to shoot it,” PCM coach Jeff Lindsay said. “She nailed a wide open look early and sometimes it just takes seeing the thing go through the hoop.”

That’s something Wignall didn’t see the last three games. She was a combined 0-for-9 in losses to Pella Christian, North Polk and Gilbert last week.

Against Greene County on Tuesday, Wignall was 5-for-8 from the floor, 3-of-6 from 3-point range and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line.

“It was nice to make shots. A three-game drought is not good,” Wignall said.

Wignall was one of three Mustangs in double-figures. Junior Regan Freland scored 13 and sophomore Lilli Baird drilled four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Sophomore Celeste Wagaman also put in eight points off the bench.

“It’s really nice when everyone is on. We have some good shooters on this team and when we are all making shots, it’s fun,” Wignall said. “It was good to see us all contributing tonight.”

The game was a bit of a get-right contest for the Mustangs, who came into the night on a three-game losing streak. PCM led 18-7 after one, held a 29-9 lead at halftime and outscored the Rams 15-6 in the third.

The PCM coaching staff discussed over the weekend how to simplify things for their team. They got back to basics, and the Mustangs were able to snap the skid and get back on track.

“We made a commitment to a few things. The coaches did some thinking and tried to figure out what had worked, what didn’t work and went from there,” Lindsay said. “We decided to do a few things really good instead of a lot of things OK. We wanted to make it easier on the girls and not allow them to think so much.”

The Mustangs (3-4 overall, 2-2 in conference play) jumped out to an early lead and never trailed in the game.

Wignall got the scoring going when she stole the ball at the defensive end of the floor and then converted a short jumper at the offensive end.

Freland followed with a layup and Baird hit consecutive treys to put PCM in front 10-2. Greene County got within 12-7 on a three-point play by Brianna Habben, but Freland nailed a 3-pointer and Wagaman added a three-point play to put PCM up 18-7 after eight minutes.

The Rams (0-6, 0-4) scored the first bucket of the second quarter, but it was the only points of the quarter for the visitors.

Senior Mack Bussan and Freland both made buckets inside the lane, Wignall hit two free throws and Baird nailed another triple to put the Mustangs up 27-9. Freland’s jumper sent PCM into the locker room up 29-9 at halftime.

“Balanced scoring is what we felt was going to be the norm this year,” Lindsay said. “It didn’t work out that way last week, but we had to move forward and keep our heads up. Regan is a marked girl most nights, and the team knows that.”

With the big lead, and because others stepped up their play, Freland was able to basically take the entire fourth quarter off.

Wignall went on her own personal 8-0 run midway through the third to put the Mustangs up 42-15, and Freland’s layup made it 44-15 after three frames.

For Wignall, a big offensive night should help with her confidence.

“Sometimes I think ‘should I take this shot or not.’ The coaches always tell me to just shoot it,” Wignall said. “They want the best for me so I just try to help the team any way I can.”

Wagaman scored five of her eight points in the fourth quarter. Wignall also cashed in on her third 3-pointer of the night to push the Mustang lead to 26. They went on to win by 28.

Lindsay hopes giving his best player some rest in the fourth quarter will pay off down the road this season.

“She’s played a lot minutes so far, and I know she can do that, but to give her some rest is something I hope will pay dividends moving forward,” Lindsay said.

Sophomore Emma George did not score in the game but finished with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

PCM applied full-court pressure for three quarters and that led to 14 steals on the night. The Mustangs only turned it over 10 times at the other end of the floor.

“The teams we played last week won’t let you do what you want,” Lindsay said. “So we tried to simplify things for them this week. We hope to continue to be really good at those things moving forward.”

PCM played the game without junior starter Sierra Foster, who was injured in the loss to Gilbert on Friday night. Lindsay said she still has some stiffness in her neck.

“We are taking the cautious approach with her,” Lindsay said. “We want to make sure she feels better and can do the things she does for us before we put her back out there.”

PCM heads back on the road against Nevada at 6 p.m. on Friday in Nevada. The Cubs have begun the season 2-6 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Greene County 7-2-6-10 — 25

PCM 18-11-15-10 — 53

Greene County (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Brianna Habben 3-1-1-7, Elizabeth Bravard 1-0-1-2, Lily Muir 3-0-2-6, Kassie Lamoureux 1-0-1-2, Bailey Cunningham 0-0-2-0, Bri Osterson 0-0-1-0, Makayla Kafer 1-1-0-3, Madison Hayes 1-0-3-2, Sadie Wilson 1/1-0-1-3. Totals 11/1-2-12-25.

PCM (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Camryn Wignall 5/3-2-0-15, Lilli Baird 4/4-0-3-12, Regan Freland 6/1-0-2-13, Celeste Wagaman 3/1-1-5-8, Morgan DeHaai 0-1-0-1, Kate McCarthy 1-0-0-2, Mack Bussan 1-0-1-2. Totals: 20/9-4-11-53.