Two down to the wire finishes that went opposite directions for the Pleasantville Basketball Squads on Friday night with the girls falling to Earlham 46-44 and the boys grinding out a 60-56 win over the Cardinals as heard live on kniakrls.com KNIA3. The girls game was tight for the entire contest with neither team able to pull away. Earlham held an eight point lead when Pleasantville chipped away and actually took the lead, but could not keep it and eventually fell in the end. Rachel Harvey led the Trojans with nine points while Azell Smith and Riley Thill scored eight. In the boys game, the Trojans got off to a slow start allowing Earlham’s three point shooting to dictate the first half and trailed 39-31 at the break. The Cardinals upped their lead to 11 before the Trojans started eating into the lead eventually getting it down to three at the end of the 3rd quarter. Defensive plays and timely free throw shooting got the Trojans the win. Coach Tom Wilkins told KNIA Sports seeing his team respond to multiple runs from Earlham was what impressed him the most.

Wilkins: “We were down 8 and I said if we can get it down to 4 at the end of the quarter we’re in good shape and we got to 3, but it ballooned back to 8 or 9, but I never saw defeat in their eyes and they took care of business and that’s what I most proud about.”

Mason Scheve scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half, but two crucial free throws in the late stages of the game provided a spark. Andrew Pender scored 15 and Dayson Leerhoff chipped in ten. The Pleasantville girls are 3-2 while the boys are 2-0, both squads will host Madrid on Tuesday.