Mount Vernon girls’ basketball ended last season in the semifinal round of the Class 3A state tournament with a 45-37 loss to Estherville-Lincoln Central.
On Rivalry Saturday at Johnson Hall on the Kirkwood Campus in Cedar Rapids, No. 2 Mount Vernon avenged that loss, beating No. 1 ELC 52-42.
“It was our last game last year and then our first game this year, so we just wanted to change the outcome,” senior Sydney Huber said.
“You don’t get a lot of opportunities to play the game again,” Mount Vernon coach Nate Sanderson said. “We learned a lot of things from that game. We were excited to try something a little bit different.”
Mount Vernon (1-0) deployed more player-to-player defense, rather than their go-to zone scheme, to throw off ELC (1-2). The Mustangs led for most of the game but then closed it out with a 15-4 run in the fourth quarter.
That was after the Midgets took the lead on a three-point play by Minnesota State recruit Haylee Stokes that put them up, 38-37 to start the final quarter.
“I thought down the stretch we were able to get big rebounds,” Sanderson said. “It feels like redemption, so I’m excited about that.”
Six-foot-3 senior Chloe Meester, the Iowa state volleyball player of the year, is still adapting to her winter sport. She had three buckets and a handful of rebounds in that closing run.
“Coach told me, you are going to score over 99 percent of everybody, because of how tall I am,” Meester said. “That gave me confidence.”
The Mustang guards fed Meester on the block.
“She’s going to see a completely different defense this year than she’s seen the f irst three years,” Sanderson said. “Before teams would let her catch it, maybe send a double late. Now there is someone shading underneath of her. Every time she posted up there was a guard standing behind her there.”
Meester finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Huber led the offense with 19 points, including four 3-pointers.
Taylor Franck added 10 points. Freshman Savanna Wright had six points, after leading the team in scoring in the scrimmage the week before.
“She brings a lot,” Huber said. “But we haven’t played together much.”
There won’t be any time to slow down. The Mustangs were scheduled to host a pair of Class 5A teams — Cedar Rapids Prairie on Tuesday, Dec. 3, then Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Thursday, Dec. 5.
“It is better to play a really good team, than a bad team,” Meester said. “You get to see what you need to work on.”