Mount Pulaski edges Maroa-Forsyth in Decatur Basketball Tournament

[December 22, 2016]  Mount Pulaski opened play in the 2016 Team Soy Christmas Tournament hosted by St. Teresa High School in Decatur Wednesday night and came away with a big 63-61 win over Maroa-Forsyth.

The Hilltoppers held a 14-13 lead after one quarter of basketball action and they continued to build on the lead over the next sixteen minutes of play.

Mount Pulaski was up 25-19 at the half and at the end of the third quarter the lead was 49-38.

Maroa-Forsyth mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter but the Hilltoppers held off the Trojans to come away with the 63-61 win.

Mount Pulaski was led by Lukas Aylesworth with 25 points. Aylesworth also had 6 rebounds.

Peyton Taylor had 12 points and 14 rebounds for Mount Pulaski, while Eli Griesheim contributed 13 points.

Coach Ryan Deibert’s team improved to 4-6 on the season and he was pleased with his team’s effort on the court. “I thought we played well inside today. Lukas did a great job finishing around the rim and Peyton did a solid job on the boards tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball necessarily well tonight, but I felt like Eli Griesheim gave us a much needed boost off the bench. He stepped right in and buried a couple threes and gave us 13 points off the bench.”

Deibert continued, “We didn’t do a great job of buckling down defensively tonight and we still need to execute better late in the game.”

Finally the coach added, "It was nice to see us still find a way to pull it out though.”

Mount Pulaski will play their second game of the tournament tonight at 7:30 p.m. versus Blue Ridge.

Mount Pulaski scoring

Aylesworth 25
Griesheim 13
Taylor 12
Oliver 6
Huff 4
Kretzinger 3


Maria-Forsyth scoring

Mahmood 22
Nelson 20
Benar 7
Mitchell 5
Marsh 3
Agee 2
Brett 2

[Teena Lowery]