PCM withstands strong effort from CMB to advance

PLEASANTVILLE — Mistakes plagued the Prairie City-Monroe boys basketball team in the first half of its Class 2A District 11 quarterfinal game against rival Collins-Maxwell/Baxter on Monday night.

The Mustangs committed 14 first-half turnovers but only trailed CMB by one at the break.

But once the Mustangs cleaned up their miscues and weathered the Raiders’ hot shooting from outside, the game turned in their favor.

A 17-4 run in the third quarter turned a four-point deficit into a nine-point lead, and Mustangs withstood one last Raider punch in the fourth quarter during a 57-47 victory.

CMB got within two on a Cole Damman 3-pointer with 2:04 to play in the game, but PCM pulled away with six free throws in the final 43 seconds.

“We just didn’t play very well,” PCM coach Fred Lorensen said of the Mustangs’ first-half effort. “It wasn’t really turnovers off pressure or anything. We just were careless with the ball and let them take the ball away from us.”

CMB can sometimes live by the 3-pointer and die by the 3-pointer. In the first half, the Raiders were living, connecting on six treys. The Raiders added three 3-pointers in the second half, but the Mustangs turned the misses into quick transition points during the deciding 17-4 spurt.

“That little amount of time hurt us. We can’t seem to avoid those kind of runs,” CMB coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “We didn’t give up. We had it down to two with a minute to go. We had a chance to win and then we committed two turnovers.”

The win moves PCM into the District 11 semifinals where it will take on second-seeded East Marshall at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Des Moines Christian. The host and top-seeded Lions face fifth-seeded West Marshall at 8 p.m. Thursday.

West Marshall defeated fourth-seeded and host Pleasantville, 59-49, in Monday’s nightcap.

CMB led throughout the entire first half. Sophomore Will Clapper scored eight of his 14 points in the first quarter, and CMB’s guards were connecting from long range against PCM’s 2-3 zone.

A Noah Galloway 3-pointer helped the Raiders lead 14-10 after one quarter.

PCM grabbed a brief lead early in the second after freshman Derek Brown nailed a 3-pointer and then hit another bucket. Junior Dayton Boell’s 3-point play put the Mustangs up 18-14.

CMB came right back with back-to-back triples from Damman, a freshman, and senior Hunter McWhirter. Boell answered to tie it at 20-all, but another 3-pointer from McWhirter pushed the Raiders back in front.

Junior Travis Lindemoen answered a bucket by PCM sophomore Andrew Van Ryswyk with another trey. That gave CMB a four-point lead, but PCM scored the final three points of the half to get within one.

“We have shooters. We have had shooters all year,” Hasselbrink said. “We knew we would double our attempts from last year. That’s what we want though. When we are on, we can be really good.”

McWhirter started the second half with another 3-pointer. Van Ryswyk nailed a pair of free throws at the other end, but Clapper get the Raider lead at four with a putback inside the lane.

That’s when PCM took control.

Mustang junior Elijah Sperfslage scored a game-high 16 points — nine of those came in the 17-4 run.

Suddenly, the shots were no longer going in from outside for CMB, and PCM got easy buckets off those misses in transition at the other end.

Sperfslage bookended the run with layups and added a runner in the lane and a 3-pointer of his own during that stretch.

“You just have to keep believing in yourself and keep playing hard,” Sperfslage said. “We can’t let up because those guys can score points in a hurry. They have some guys who can shoot.”

Sophomore Reed Worth also canned two treys during that 17-4 run. He finished with 10 points and five assists, helping the Mustangs win despite leading scorer Jackson Thomas being held to just four. PCM also committed five turnovers in the second half.

“We have other guys who can step up,” Sperfslage said. “(Thomas) will get his game going. This was just a tough night. We are all pretty confident that we can get the job done if someone else’s shot isn’t falling.”

The Mustangs led 44-37 after three quarters.

Junior Braydon Aker hit a hook shot and then Sperfslage and Damman traded 3-pointers to keep the Raider deficit at five with 4:40 to play.

Damman got a steal at the other end but couldn’t convert the layup to get CMB even closer. Damman’s 3-pointer with 2:04 to go inched CMB to within 49-47.

That’s when Thomas hit his only field goal of the game — a pull up jumper in the lane. That gave the Mustangs a four-point lead, and PCM did the rest of the damage from the line in the final minute.

“Elijah and Reed hit a couple of big shots. Jackson’s only basket was a big one, too,” Lorensen said. “We were able to make some free throws late to extend it. That’s what you need to do in the postseason. Free throws are big.”

Hasselbrink is OK with his team taking a lot of 3-pointers, especially against a 2-3 zone like the one PCM played Monday. The Mustangs’ first priority defensively was to take away Clapper inside, so that opened things up outside for Damman, McWhirter and others.

“They sat in their 2-3 zone and if you work the ball around, the open shots will usually be from outside,” Hasselbrink said. “We still need to get Will Clapper the ball inside. If they collapse on Will, the best option is to kick it out and take a three.”

Lorensen said he thought about switching to a man-to-man defense at halftime.

“We did a little bit better job on their shooters. We got closer to them and bothered the shots more,” Lorensen said. “We probably should have played man-to-man in the second half, maybe the lead would have been more. But we had a nice run there, got a few steals that we converted into points and ran off their missed shots.”

CMB did not have the services of sophomore shooting guard Ian Thomson, who missed the game because of an illness. Thomson may have helped beat the 2-3 zone even more.

“He would have had plenty of chances against that zone,” Hasselbrink said. “He helps us with depth, too. His absence definitely hurt us, but I am proud of the guys. They deserved this one and did everything they could. That one run was the difference, unfortunately.”

Senior Mark Bruxvoort scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out four assists for PCM. Van Ryswyk scored six points and collected 14 rebounds. Boell scored seven points. Thomas was held to four points, but he also had eight rebounds, five steals and four assists.

Clapper and McWhirter both scored 14 points for CMB, which ended its season at 5-17. Clapper grabbed 10 rebounds. McWhirter collected eight. Damman finished with nine points, four steals and three assists and Lindemoen chipped in five points, four assists and three steals.

Collins-Maxwell/Baxter 14-12-11-10 — 47

Prairie City-Monroe 10-15-19-13 — 57

CMB (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Lindemoen 2/1-0-3-5, McWhirter 5/4-0-2-14, Damman 3/3-0-5-9, Aker 1-0-5-2, Clapper 6-2-0-14, Cheville 0-0-0-0, Galloway 1/1-0-0-3. TOTALS: 18/9-2-15-47.

PCM (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Sperfslage 6/2-2-1-16, Bruxvoort 4-0-3-8, Worth 3/2-2-0-10, Thomas 1-2-0-4, Van Ryswyk 2-2-2-6, Stafford 0-0-0-0, Boell 3-1-0-7, Dredge 0-0-0-0, Lanphier 0-0-0-0, Brown 2/1-0-0-5, Van Dyke 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 21/5-10-7-57.