Mountain Grove’s Briley White gets past a Salem Lady Tigers’ defender for a layup.

The Mountain Grove Panthers’ basketball team is entering their final week of the regular season schedule on quite a role after a pair of South Central Association (SCA) Conference games to extend their winning streak to a season-high five straight.
Mountain Grove opened the week by traveling to Willow Springs and leaving with a big 62-55 overtime victory.
Against the Bears, a Willow Springs player drew a foul and attempted a shot three-quarters of the floor away, granting him three free throw attempts in a 46-43 game.
He hit all free throws and Kale Gardner’s game-winning attempt rimmed out, sending the game into overtime.
Mountain Grove would make 8-of-11 free throws in the extra session and Kale Gardner had eight total points, including a dunk, to help the Panthers pull out the win.
Early in the contest, the Bears led 19-15. The Panthers answered with a 13-4 run in the second quarter as Aden Estep scored six points.
Up five entering the third quarter, both teams struggled offensively in the third as they combined to score 16 points.
Brody Emery had four of his team’s 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Bears would eventually send the game into overtime.
Kale Gardner scored 14 of his team-high 19 points in the second half; Emery had 14; Estep 13; Brady Anderson had six points; while both Eli Golden and Bret Gardner added five points.
On Senior Night against a 16-win Salem team, the Panthers outscored the Tigers, 40-26, in the second half to pull away for a 64-44 victory.
Mountain Grove’s defense held Salem to just two points in the opening quarter as Estep scored five points during a 9-2 run.
Estep added a pair of 3-pointers and eight points before halftime, but the Tigers cut the lead to six at the break.
Kale Gardner scored 10 points and Bret Gardner added six in a 21-point third quarter that pushed the lead to double digits.
Kale Gardner had another nine points in the 19-point final frame to seal the win by 20.
He scored a team-high 22 points; Estep had 18; Bret Gardner 11; Golden five; Emery four; and both Dalton Shannon and Anderson scored two points.
With the pair of wins, the Panthers are back at the .500 mark with a 12-12 overall record. They finished 5-2 in the SCA.