On Senior Night Friday, the PCM girls basketball team dominated Roland-Story in a 54-36 victory, while the boys squad’s upset bid of the Class 2A #3 ranked Norseman fell short in a 66-60 loss, with both games heard live on KNIAKRLS.com.

The Mustang girls opened the game on a 9-0 run in the opening 3:30 and never looked back, leading wire-to-wire. PCM closed the first quarter with a 14-8 lead and used relentless defensive pressure to push the advantage to 27-13 at halftime. The Mustangs held the lead at 38-25 after three quarters, before being able to empty the bench late in the 18-point win. PCM head coach Sami Allison-Rodriguez said she couldn’t have scripted a better way to send the seniors off their home floor.

“You know, we’ve been talking all week and since the last time we played them that we thought we had a good match up. We thought we had a good game plan, we just had to defend and oh my goodness, did our kids have it locked in tonight. I mean, defensively they did exactly what we drew up and it just worked. It was fun. I’m so happy for these seniors. The crowd tonight was amazing. They deserved one of these close wins to go our way and we got it tonight.”

Freshman Tori Lindsay had big game for PCM with a career-high 26 points on 10 of 12 shooting, while senior Paige Steenhoek added 11 points in her final home game. The Mustang girls improved to 10-10 overall and 7-6 in Heart of Iowa Conference play.

Facing a ranked Norseman squad, the PCM boys proved up to the challenge early trailing just 15-14 after the first quarter. The Mustangs battled to take the lead to 27-26 with a 1:20 remaining in the second quarter, before Roland-Story closed the half on a 9-0 to take a 35-27 lead into the intermission. A quarter opening alley-oop dunk by Jacob Wendt and a block by Grant Van Veen leading to a fast-break layup by Kaleb DeVries sparked an offensive explosion in the third quarter, with the Norseman clinging to a 57-52 lead into the final quarter. The Mustangs continued to battle, pulling within three points, but ultimately dropped to 6-13 overall and 5-8 in league play. Gavin Van Gorp (25), Jacob Wendt (23), and August Stock (10) combined for 58 of PCM’s 60 points in the loss. 

The Mustangs basketball teams wrap up regular season conference play on Tuesday with a doubleheader at South Hamilton.