Photos by AJ Dolan | For the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun
Mount Vernon’s Courtney Franck (No. 22) tries to find a way around Solon defenders in play last week.
The Mount Vernon girls’ basketball season is starting to feel like a rerun … but in all the best ways.
On Saturday, Feb. 22, the Mustangs clobbered Benton Community 68-22 to earn a return trip to the state tournament.
“We knew we could get there,” junior Courtney Franck said. “We had the talent to do so, and tonight, we did.”
No. 1 Mount Vernon (23-1) will play unranked West Marshall (19-5) in the Class 3A state quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Monday, March 3 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Win, and they get either No. 5 Cherokee (21-3) or No. 6 Estherville Lincoln Central (20-3) at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6. The Midgets are the team that knocked the Mustangs out in the semifinals a year ago.
“I feel like last year, coming up short, this year we have a lot to give, still,” senior Chloe Meester said. “So, we’re excited.”
The rest of the 3A state field includes No. 2 Dubuque Wahlert (19-4), No. 12 Spirit Lake (17-7), No. 3 Williamsburg (23-2) and No. 9 Des Moines Christian (21-3). The title game is at 8 p.m., Friday, March 7.
If the Mustangs and the Raiders win through, it would be the fourth Wamac opponent for Mount Vernon this postseason.
Mount Vernon started the 3A playoffs with a 68-23 win over Vinton-Shellsburg, then beat Solon, 52-32, on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Then Benton.
“They are teams we’ve had success with, so you don’t mind playing them another time,” Mount Vernon Coach Nathan Sanderson said. “And it says a lot about the strength of our conference.”
Benton upset No. 13 Mediapolis 50-47 to advance to the regional final. And early on they seemed game about giving the Mustangs a bigger challenge than their first matchup, a 62-27 win for Mount Vernon back on Dec. 10.
The Mustangs led just 10-6 midway through the first quarter.
Then freshman Savanna Wright came up with a couple of steals and layups, and Mount Vernon closed the quarter on a 9-1 run and led 21-9.
“I think we just stopped their drives,” Meester said. “Our defense pushed us farther and we started making more shots. We found out what worked.”
In the second quarter, Mount Vernon used a 13-0 run and an 8-0 run to push the lead at halftime to 42-16.
“We started off a little too relaxed,” senior Sydney Huber said. “We began creating turnovers; we just decided to start doing that.”
At the half, the Bobcats had 15 turnovers and were shooting 3 of 13 from the field. Meanwhile, the Mustangs were 19 of 38 shooting.
“We started getting stops,” Sanderson said. “They missed some shots and we were able to run a little bit more.”
Then the Mustangs left zero doubt they’d be returning to state by winning the third quarter, 16-0.
“We played really good defense,” Franck said. “We just continued to play our game and we just continued to push the tempo.”
Like their entire 22-game win streak, the Mustangs had great balanced scoring. Meester led the way with 16 points, and was followed by Wright (14), Huber (11), Courtney Franck (10) and Taylor Franck (9).
Now it is on to state, and this trip might feel a bit like the what the volleyball team did this fall … and they came home with a title.
“Two in one year?” Meester said. “I feel that’s a hard thing to do. Not many schools do that.”
Mount Vernon is top-ranked and top-seeded and their only loss was to Class 5A No. 6 Cedar Rapids Prairie back on Dec. 3. In their past nine games, they’ve won by an average margin of 31 points.
“We knew we could go far this season, and we still have more to come,” Courtney Franck said. “We’re super excited to see how far we can go.”