Panthers’ season ends in district semifinals

The Mountain Grove Panthers’ basketball team’s season came to an end last week after running into No. 1 seed Logan-Rogersville in the Class 4, District 10 semifinals, 87-51.
The loss dropped Mountain Grove’s record to just under the .500 mark at 13-14. It was also the final game for seniors Aden Estep, Brady Anderson and Peyton Metty.
“We will greatly miss Aden, Brady and Peyton,” said Mountain Grove head coach Nick Openshaw. “Those boys started middle school when I did as an assistant principal. I had the opportunity to coach them for five years. They are great young men who will one day make fine husbands and fathers…This season did not end how we wanted. We had a lot of tough losses to quality opponents. We fell short of our conference and district goals, but hopefully I can be better ready to put kids in positions to be successful next season.”
In the semifinals match-up with the Wildcats, Logan-Rogersville jumped out to an early 24-13 lead with the help of four, 3-pointers.
Estep made two of his own and scored eight points in the opening frame.
Logan-Rogersville followed that frame up with a 22-point second quarter as they took a 46-28 lead into halftime.
Kale Gardner scored seven points and Brody Emery had six in the third. Unfortunately, Logan-Rogersville scored 35 points those same eight minutes and the game was completely out of reach.
Kale Garner scored 17 points in the loss for the Panthers.
Estep added 14; Anderson had eight; while Eli Golden and Emery both scored six.
In the first round against Warsaw, the Panthers dominated the Wildcats in a 74-37 victory.
Kale Gardner scored 10 of his team’s 16 points in the first quarter for an early five-point edge.
This was before Mountain Grove went on a 24-6 run before halftime.
Both Kale Gardner and Bret Gardner had seven points while Emery added five.
In the third quarter, Kale Gardner hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 14 points during a 25-9 run to put the game completely out of reach.
Kale Gardner scored a team-high 31 points.
Emery had 13 points in the win for Mountain Grove; Anderson had eight; Bret Gardner seven; Golden five; Estep three; and Brady Harris two.