PELLA — Prairie City-Monroe’s basketball teams each had weekends that could have ended better. The girls split games, winning, 68-46 over Greene County on Friday and falling 67-48 against Pella on Saturday. PCM’s boys lost back-to-back games. After starting out the year 10-0, the Mustangs dropped one, 83-65 on Friday night to the Rams and another, 70-60, to the Little Dutch on Saturday.
PCM’s boys are now 10-2, while the girls are 8-6.
The boys fell victim to some cold shooting over the weekend.
A night after a poor string of shooting against Greene County, PCM lost by 10 at Pella due to some of the same woes from the field.
The team shot 21-of-62 for a percentage of 33.8 and hit 6-of-24 3-point attempts. Logan Gilman’s 30 points led the mustangs, but a 21-point halftime deficit was too big for PCM to overcome.
Pella was led by junior Isaac Naaktgeboren, who hit 11-of-16 shots and scored 31 points while also pulling down 15 rebounds.
Against the Rams, PCM knocked down 26-of-71 shots from the field for just a 36.6 percent clip, which included a 2-of-20 showing from 3-point distance.
Meanwhile, the Rams hit 20-of-35 from the field and 13-of-26 from long range. Freshman Trey Tucker had a particularly sharp outing for the Rams, scoring 24 points. Mitchell Gorsutch backed him up with 20 points.
Gilman did what he could for the Mustangs, scoring 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Senior Dillon Bruxvoort was second on the team with 18 points, but the Mustangs lacked a viable third and fourth option in their first loss of the season.
FOR THE GIRLS, Friday night went exactly as planned.
PCM’s Lady Mustangs were hot in the first quarter, outscoring Greene County 26-11. The Mustangs took a 36-23 lead into halftime and built on it with a strong defensive third quarter. A solid final period secured the win for PCM.
Junior Courtney Van Houweling continued to score well for PCM, knocking down 6-of-11 from the field for 21 points. She also hit all nine of her attempts from the charity stripe. Senior Abbi Gilson scored 16 points for the Mustangs. Lexi Kain was third on the team with 10.
For the Rams, Kayla Mobley scored 19 points to lead the team. She also grabbed 18 rebounds for a double-double. Hannah Onken was second among Rams with 12 points.
Things did not go as well for PCM against the Little Dutch.
PCM led the way 13-11 after one quarter, but an offensive explosion propelled Pella into the lead at halftime, 36-24. Pella tightened its grip on the lead in the third quarter, and played the Mustangs evenly in the fourth to take the victory.
The Mustang teams stay home this week with games against South Hamilton on Tuesday and Roland-Story on Friday.