Panthers beat Liberty, fall in third place game

After winning three of their previous four games heading into last week’s Family Pharmacy Panther Classic, Mountain Grove’s boys basketball team had their sights on winning some hardware in their own tournament.
They opened play by avenging an earlier loss to Liberty (Mountain View) and picking up a two-point win in overtime.
Unfortunately, that followed by falling to state-ranked Norwood and falling to a West Plains team that decided to play their best basketball after struggling in their opening two contests.
The Zizzers made 10, 3-pointers and turned on the mercy clock in the third place game to beat the Panthers, 77-48.
Sam Peterson’s early 3-pointer gave his team a 5-3 lead. That was answered though by the Zizzers’ 8-0 run as they would go up 16-10.
Brayden Haughey provided a spark off the bench as he had five rebounds in a short amount of time on the court that carried into the second quarter.
After a couple of steals, the Panthers did cut the gap to 25-21.
Six different Panthers scored before halftime, but the Zizzers made four 3-pointers to go up 14.
In the third quarter, Aden Estep scored seven points. Unfortunately, West Plains continued their hot shooting by hitting three more 3-pointers as they won the quarter, 24-12. Peterson scored five points in the final quarter. West Plains though would turn the mercy clock on to pick up the 29-point win.
Petersson ended the game with 10 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and one steal; Cooper Hoerning had five points and one block; Haughey had two points and eight rebounds; and Brady Anderson had one point and three rebounds.
Estep finished with 10 points, three rebounds and one block; Brody Emery added five points, four rebounds and one steal; Kale Gardner had 10 points, five rebounds, three steals, two assits and one block; and Eli Golden had three points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals.
In their lone win, the Panthers avenged a three-point loss a couple of weeks ago to Liberty (Mountain View), and this time, they defeated the Eagles in overtime, 60-58. Both teams exchanged baskets throughout the contest. Mountain Grove made six, 3-pointers in the first four quarters. Gardner and Peterson both scored 16 points; Emery tallied 13 ponts; Estep added 10; Golden had four points; while Anderson had one point.