John Bohnenkamp for Pen City Current Sports
FORT MADISON - Fort Madison’s boys basketball team made its lone home appearance in December a victory by playing stingy defense to go with an effective offense.
The Bloodhounds picked up their first win of the season, controlling Mount Pleasant for a 47-37 win in a Southeast Conference game on Friday night.
Fort Madison (1-1 overall, 1-1 conference) led for all but 15 seconds of the game. The Bloodhounds surged to a 19-8 lead early in the second quarter before the Panthers (0-4, 0-2) rallied, then FM dominated the second half, leading by double digits over the final 10 minutes, 48 seconds.
“We were home,” coach Ryan Wilson said of the difference between this game and the season-opening 57-55 loss at Fairfield last Friday. “We were in our comfort zone. And we had a hell of a crowd.”
Wilson said he and the team dissected the video from the loss last week and found things that needed improving.
“We talked about our pre-game warm ups — they weren't sharp, they weren't crisp,” Wilson said. “We talked about just attacking and being the attacker. We did a lot of that tonight.”
The Bloodhounds were especially aggressive at the start of each quarter. They led 12-4 five minutes into the game. They scored the first five points in the span of a minute in the second quarter. They turned a 23-18 halftime lead into a 31-21 margin with 2:48 left in the third. And they scored eight consecutive points to open the fourth quarter.
“We got out, scored some baskets, built our lead, and then we kind of got complacent,” Wilson said. “But again, this is a pretty young team, right? Maybe young is not the way to describe it. We're just not very experienced.”
There were long periods where the Panthers didn’t score — a 3 ½-minute stretch late in the first quarter into early in the second, and a 5 ½-minute stretch late in the third quarter into the fourth.
“Defensively, we're pretty sharp,” Wilson said. “Now we were bad in a couple situations, but we're pretty sharp. Holding a team to 37 points, we'll take that any time. You tell me our opponents are going to average 37 points a game, and we’re going to win some games with our guys.”
Nolan Guzman led Fort Madison with 17 points. Dayton Lamar added 13 points.
Aiden Humble led Mount Pleasant with 19 points.
It will be a while before the Bloodhounds are home again. Saturday's game a Pella was postponed due to weather and the Hounds are at Burlington next Friday, then after Christmas break have road games against Washington and Williamsburg. Their next home game will be January 11 against Central Lee.
“Our guys showed up ready to go and were excited to play at home for once, because we're not going to be back here again for a while,” Wilson said.
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