Grundy County, Mercer take basketball wins on Thursday night

On a relatively light night of high school basketball, two rival schools out of the HDC Conference had doubleheader sweeps, with the Grundy R-5 Panthers and Mercer Cardinals took doubleheader sweeps, while the Gilman City Hawks suffered a sweep in their games, played at Stewartsville High School against the host Cardinals.

The Grundy R-5 girls rolled to a 61-9 win over Newtown-Harris.  Matana Munday led a balanced scoring effort from the Lady Panthers, scoring 14 points.  Zoe Littleton contributed 11, while Jandie Peterson and Morgan Axtell both had 10 points.

The Panther boys had a closer game with the Tigers, but managed to salvage a 57-48 win.  Three Grundy R-5 players threatened double-double efforts, with two achieving that mark.  Wayne Baxter had 23 points and 15 rebounds, Bryson Gann 19 points and eight rebounds, and Jonathan Stimpson 11 points and 16 rebounds for Grundy R-5.

The Mercer girls and boys had little difficulty in earning conference road wins at Tri-County.  The #3 ranked (MBCA Class 1) Lady Cardinals won by a final score of 76-22, while the Cardinal boys cranked up a potent offense in a 114-20 victory over the Mustangs.  For Mercer, Bryer Noe had 25 points, while Hunter Shipley, Jon Johnson, and Cash Hartley all scored 14.  Lance Cook had 12 of Tri-County’s 20 points on the night.

The Stewartsville girls beat visiting Gilman City, 50-38.  Hailey Burrows scored 27 of the 38 points on the night for the Ladyhawks, while adding 16 rebounds.  Haize Wilson had 5 points.  The Gilman City boys fell to Stewartsville, 73-44.  Cornelius Peery had 13 points and Ira Johnson 10 for the Hawks, who shot only 30 percent from the field in falling in their test on the road.  

The North Harrison girls, playing host to Lamoni on Thursday night, fell in overtime 64-55.  For the Lady Shamrocks, Payton Craig had 21 points, Kiley Gibson 16, and Brandy Rivet 11.  The North Harrison boys lost to Lamoni 61-47, while the East Harrison Bobcats suffered a doubleheader sweep against North Nodaway, falling 65-24 in the boys contest and 55-32 in the girls encounter.

In non-conference action, the Marceline Tigers were swept by the Monroe City Panthers, 57-36 in the girls game and 58-53 in the boys contest.