PCM girls battle hard, fall to 1A No. 10 Montezuma

Dec. 4—MONROE — PCM's girls basketball team won just four games last year and has only one senior this season.

It would have been real easy to quit after falling behind 26-8 midway through the second quarter, but a strong finish to the first half set the Mustangs up for a competitive final two quarters.

Class 1A No. 10 Montezuma outscored PCM by five in the second half and won the non-conference road game 59-45 on Thursday, but head coach Sami Allison was proud of how her PCM squad played against a Bravettes program who played in the state tournament last season.

"We have goals for every quarter and if we have a bad quarter, we just shake it off and move to the next one," Allison said. "For our kids to keep fighting after getting down as big as we were, I just couldn't be more proud of them."

The Bravettes (4-0) led 12-6 after one quarter and a 12-2 run to begin the second pushed their lead to 26-8.

PCM ended the half on a 14-5 run to get within nine points at the break. During the run, Evelyn Burkett and Addison Steenhoek buried back-to-back 3-pointers and Riley Johannes scored four points late in the frame. Her free throw with 3.7 seconds to go in the second made it 31-22 at the break.

The biggest issues for PCM (0-4) were 31 turnovers on offense and the 23 fouls it was called for at the other end. Montezuma turned it over just nine times and won the game despite shooting 25 percent from the floor because it was 24-of-36 from the free-throw line.

The biggest benefactor to the fouls was Shanae Wetering, who finished with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds. She was 14-of-21 from the foul line.

Allison said the Mustangs' main focus defensively was with Mia Boulton, who averaged 20 points per game in the Bravettes' first two contests. PCM held Boulton to 11 on Thursday, but Wetering was too much to handle inside.

"Boulton was the girl who scored a lot of points in the first two games so we were more focused on her," Allison said. "But they have others who can step up. We are undersized so we'll have to figure out how to stop those bigger kids, but (Wetering) is a tough matchup with her size and skill set."

PCM got within eight two different times in the third, once on a bucket by Emily Foster and another time on a putback by Madie Reed.

Reed's runner cut the lead to nine a little bit later, but Montezuma went up 15 after three and pushed the margin to as many as 21 in the fourth.

"We are trying to keep it as simple as possible and try to win the little stuff. We want to focus on things quarter by quarter," Allison said. "We just don't have a ton of experience so I think that's the best way to approach it. They bought in tonight. They played so hard."

The Mustangs shot 40 percent from the floor but was 4-of-17 from 3-point range. They scored 19 fewer points from the foul line than Montezuma.

Steenhoek led the Mustangs with 12 points, five assists, two rebounds and three steals. Sophia Steenhoek had seven points, Johannes added six points and five boards and Reed had eight points and three rebounds.

Foster was effective when she played but ran into foul trouble against Wetering. She finished with four points and five rebounds.

Paige Steenhoek tallied two points, seven rebounds and two assists, Eliana Buswell had three points and three rebounds and Burkett registered three points and two boards.

"The girls just need confidence. I think we saw it some tonight. I think a switch came on," Allison said. "I guess we'll see tomorrow. And we play Monday and Tuesday next week so not a lot of time to practice for it.

"We didn't get down on ourselves though and that could have been real easy to do because they are good. We kept fighting. We had some kids hit shots who need to hit shots and hopefully we can build off that."

Notes: Allison gave an injury update about junior guard Sidney Shaver. Allison had hoped to get Shaver back in December, but she thinks it might be into January before she plays in a game. Shaver is one of the few Mustangs who came into the season with varsity experience from last year.