Story by Kadin Rogers
The Monmouth-Roseville Titans basketball team travelled north to the Quad Cities on Tuesday night, in an out of conference meeting with one of the better teams in a loaded Western Big Six Conference, the (11-4) United Township Panthers of East Moline. The ten win Titans were looking to build off the momentum of a strong win over the weekend at the Carl Sandburg College shootout, but a strong start out of the gate for the Panthers proved to be the difference in a 51-34 UT win.
As mentioned, right out of the gate it would be the Panthers building a big lead, going up 10-0 early to ultimately lead 17-6 after the first quarter of play. A much better defensive effort was put together by the Titans however in the second quarter, holding UT to just 7 points. A Cee Sarcomo layup near the end of the half and 6 points in the quarter from Payton Thompson bring the score to 24-13 after one full half. Ethan Clark’s three pointer for Monmouth-Roseville in the third quarter came in between two solid runs for the Panthers, as they doubled up on the Titans 36-18 towards the finish of the quarter. Andy Myers would also hit a Titan triple, but a score at the buzzer sent the game to the final quarter with the Panthers leading 38-21.
M-R would find a way to get the UT lead down to just 12 points on the back of another Clark three, as well as multiple trips to the line from Nick Huston, and a fast break layup from Cee Sarcomo. The Panthers would salt it away in the final seconds however with key free throws and a dunk to reach the final score of 51-34. Leading the scoring column on the night for the Titans was Ethan Clark with 10 points while Payton Thompson was right behind him 9. The now 10-8 Titans will return to the Shoebox on Friday night for a big game in the Three Rivers Conference West Division against the Sherrard Tigers.
For the replay of the radio broadcast of the game, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section.
