Mountain Grove Panthers drop two in Strafford Invitational

After starting the season with a pair of wins, the Mountain Grove Panthers’ basketball team ran into a pair of tough Summit Conference teams in the annual Strafford Invitational.
Mountain Grove fell to both Seymour and Sparta, but did pick up a lone win in the Consolation semifinals against Buffalo, 66-51.
In the battle with the Bison, the Panthers trailed by six at halftime.
This in spite of Kale Gardner’s six first quarter points before hie made a pair of 3-pointers in the second, Gardner finished the first half with 15 of the Panthers’23 points.
Eli Golden and Gardner each scored five points in an 18-point third quarter  as Mountain Grove cut the lead to one.
Sam Peterson had eight points and Golden added a pair of 3-pointers in the final frame as Mountain Grove outscored Buffalo, 25-13, to pull away for the 15-point win.
Gardner finished with 22 points; both Golden and Peterson added 11 points; Brody Emery and Destin Unger each scored eight points; Aden Estep had four; while both Brayden Haughey and Cooper Hoerning scored one point.
The Panthers had a poorly played first half in the first round against Seymour and lost a fourth quarter lead late in a 52-50 loss to the Tigers.
With Gardner in foul trouble, the Panthers’ offense struggled to find a groove.
Down seven, the Panthers gained some momentum at the end of the third quarter when Peterson connected with Emery for a layup at the buzzer.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Panthers made 6-of-9 shots from the field and completed a comeback with Peterson’s 3-pointer. He added another basket during a 14-4 run. The Panthers actually led by seven points at one time in the fourth.
Unfortunately, Seymour made a 6-0 run in a blink of an eye as they took advantage of several costly Panthers’ turnovers.
With the game tied at 50-50, Seymour would find a player in the post for a basket with 2.5 seconds left on the clock.
Golden had to rush a 3-point attempt with .08 seconds left on the clock, which did not give him much time to get it out of his hands.
Peterson scored 17 points; Emery had 11; Estep scored seven; JP Dickey had five points; Gardner had four; and Brady Anderson scored two points.
Against Sparta in the Consolation finals, the Panthers’ offense struggled to get much going as they would end up falling, 52-47.
Gardner scored 13 of his team-high 19 points in the fourth quarter.
Golden added 11 points; Estep had eight; Emery scored four points; Peterson had three points; and Unger had two points.