PCM won against Knoxville in blowout fashion last Tuesday night, 77-48. PCM senior Carson Vandelune led the scoring with 23 points, going 8/12 from the field. It was all PCM in the second half, outsourcing the Panthers 38-15 after only being up 39-36 at halftime. Head coach Fred Lorensen addressed the win and how the season will progress. 

“It’s always good to get out to a good start and I thought our kids played really well, especially with the defensive effort in the second half. They did a nice job taking advantage of that,” Lorensen said.

 Vandelune felt as though he had a good night. 

“One thing that we could have done better though is deep shots,” said Vandelune. “We didn’t shoot many of them because we didn’t need to. One of the things we did best tonight was transition points.”

Vandelune was right, as he started the game scoring with a layup and the Mustangs only had to shoot 1/9 from behind the arc, while the Panthers shot 8/35. PCM’s only made three pointer came from junior Grant VanVeen, who shot 1/2 on the game. Two point shots continued for most of the night with Vandelune as well as senior Matthew Rosonke, who finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds and one assist. His 12 points included 2 dunks. 

“On that first dunk, I was excited to get the ball, and I didn’t think I would get up to the rim, but I did,” Rosonke recalled.  

One of Rosonke’s dunks happened in the third quarter, and it sparked PCM’s 15-2 run within the quarter, which ultimately led to the win. In the game, the Mustangs had 11 bench points, or 1/7 of the scoring. After Vandelune and Rosonke’s points, senior Durant VanDyke had 21 points, sophomore Jacob Wendt had 6 points, senior Cade Lindsay had 4 points, juniors Brayden Nessa and Darrell DeVries had 2 points each and freshmen Gavin VanGorp and Kaleb DeVries each tallied 2 points to close the scoring for PCM.  

“This was a tough game because of the way Knoxville played. They were trying to put pressure on the ball, and if you are young, that can make you jumpy sometimes,” Lorensen said, “but we handled it really well. We just need to find more time for them to play.”

Rosonke agreed that there are some things to improve on, and he just wants the whole team to get better as a whole. 

“I would like to limit the fouls and turnovers in the future,” Rosonke said, “And that will just come with more experience as we play more games.”  

Rosonke also addressed the mentality of the team moving forward after having a wonderful night against Knoxville. 

“I think we can win a lot of games this season and I think we can if we want to,” Rosonke said, “All of us players work together well, and I think we can go far in the playoffs.”

As of now, the Mustangs are 1-2 on the season after beating Knoxville then losing to Montezuma on Thursday, Dec. 2, 56-46 and Nevada on Dec. 3, 82-56. Their next game will be tonight Vs. Pella Christian at 7:30 p.m.