Defense guides PCM boys to win over East Marshall

STORY CITY — East Marshall came into Monday’s game against Prairie City-Monroe averaging 54 points per game. And the Mustangs were winners of seven of their last eight games.

But PCM’s defense was suffocating and a dominant second half sent the area Mustangs to a convincing victory over East Marshall in the Class 2A District 13 quarterfinals on Monday night.

PCM led by four at halftime but a 24-9 second half pushed it to a 43-24 triumph at Roland-Story High School.

“The way we have been offensively, we really need to play defense,” PCM coach Fred Lorensen said. “We did what we came here trying to do. Our guys inside did a nice job of keeping the ball away from their big guys and we covered up on their shooters pretty well.”

East Marshall started the season 1-6 but was 10-3 in its last 13 games. On the flip side, PCM began the year 4-2 but came into Monday’s game on a five-game losing streak.

None of that mattered though as PCM’s defense was just too good against an East Marshall offense that averaged 51 points per game in its last 11 contests. East Marshall didn’t score half of that against PCM’s stifling defense.

“We were quick on defense, we knew what was going on and we played together,” said junior Gatlin Boell, who finished with a team-high 13 points.

Next up for fourth-seeded PCM is top-seeded Des Moines Christian (16-5) in the district semifinals at 8 p.m. on Thursday in Urbandale.

The other semifinal features second-seeded Pella Christian (10-10) and sixth-seeded West Marshall at 6:30 p.m. West Marshall (7-16) upset third-seeded and host Roland-Story (14-9) 50-35 in the other quarterfinal game.

East Marshall (12-10) scored the game’s first three points but a 9-0 run by PCM gave the area Mustangs a 9-3 advantage and they never trailed again.

The spurt included a steal and layup by junior Andrew Mitchell and five straight points from Boell. Mitchell was very active at the top of the Mustangs’ defense. He made it difficult for East Marshall to get into its offense and finished with five steals in the game.

“They seemed to be going to that same spot to get the offense started so I just jumped those passes,” Mitchell said.

Senior Jason Stafford hit a 3-pointer to put PCM (12-10) in front 12-6 and it led 12-8 after one quarter.

PCM led by four at halftime and its two leading scorers — Stafford and senior Derek Brown — scored a combined five points.

That would quickly change early in the third quarter. Stafford began the frame with a 3-pointer, Brown scored on a reverse layup and Stafford buried another trey to put PCM up 27-15.

“We called a couple of plays for Jason to start the half and he was able to knock those shots down,” Lorensen said.

East Marshall changed to a man-to-man defense and Stafford went straight to the basket for a layup. The fifth-seeded Mustangs struggled to rebound out of the zone throughout the game and Boell was able to get to the basket in the second half by attacking the back side of East Marshall’s zone defense.

Boell’s hook shot in the third made it 31-18 and PCM led 32-20 after three quarters.

“I felt like the backside was open and they weren’t guarding me that well so I just dribbled in and got some easy ones,” Boell said.

Boell scored on back-to-back possessions to start the fourth, sophomore Durant Van Dyke converted a putback and Mitchell scored on a layup.

That put PCM up 40-20 and it closed it out at the foul line.

Boell and Mitchell both doubled their scoring output in the game. Boell finished with 13 points and five rebounds and Mitchell scored eight poiints, grabbed five boards and dished out two assists.

“That’s huge for them to give that to us,” Lorensen said about Boell and Mitchell’s production. “We can usually count on Jason and Derek making some baskets and after that it’s kind of a mystery. It was nice to see them step up. Gatlin had some real nice plays on the back side of the zone.”

Stafford scored eight of his 11 points in the second half and added a pair of rebounds and three assists. Brown chipped in five points and seven boards, Van Dyke had four points and six rebounds and junior Grant Landgrebe pulled down three rebounds.

In PCM’s five losses prior to Monday, three of them came after leading after three quarters. The area Mustangs found a way to finish against East Marshall and it started on the defensive end of the floor.

“We knew we had to finish tonight,” Mitchell said. “That’s been an issue for us. We had let up in some games. But we had lots of energy in the fourth quarter. We played hard until the end.”