In the only basketball game in the area Monday, the PCM Mustangs played host to the North Mahaska Warhawks in a boys only matchup, with the home team squeaking out the nailbiter 54-50.

The Mustangs came out strong, and held onto a 16-12 lead after one. The first half went by fairly quickly as there wasn’t a single travel call and neither team reached the bonus. North Mahaska made an effort before going into the locker room, scoring twice in the final 30 seconds to make it 27-26 with PCM still ahead.

That momentum by the Warhawks carried over to the third quarter as the Mustangs found themselves down 39-30 almost immediately. Head Coach Jeff Lorensen used a couple timeouts to calm his team down, and was the beneficiary of a Warhawk technical foul. This allowed PCM to claw their way out of another hole.

Lorensen also relied on his starters all night long, only making one substitution the entire game. That trust led to Sage Burns connecting on two huge three pointers late, which were the only points of the night. North Mahaska had a chance to win, but missed a three in the waning seconds. A foul sent Grant Landgrebe to the line for two free throws, making both, and thus icing the game for PCM.

Andrew Mitchell led the way with 17 points and Landgrebe added another 14. All 54 of the Mustangs’ points came from their starting five, as only Augie Stock came off the bench briefly in the second quarter.

Lorensen details what the conversation was with his team when it looked like the Warhawks were going to steal a win in the second half.

“They got up by nine there and the message was we have to keep playing. Just keep guarding them. Keep rebounding. Come down and get good shots. When we got behind, we threw the ball to them several times. You just can’t do that. The kids settled down and did a good job getting back in the game. We had some mistakes at the end. Some missed free throws and a couple turnovers we didn’t like, but persevered. That’s a big win. They got a really nice team and that’s a really nice win for us.”

The PCM girls team will be in action today at Oskaloosa as they try to get their first win of the year against a 2-3 Indians squad. Both the Mustangs boys and girls teams will be in action Friday at home against West Marshall with live coverage on the KRLS3 stream at kniakrls.com starting at 5:45.