March 28, 2024

Hawks roll into regional semifinal

SULLY — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks overpowered visiting Melcher-Dallas’ Saints, 63-26, Tuesday night in a Class 1A Region 5 quarterfinal.

Stealing the basketball 24 times from the Saints, the fifth-ranked Hawks cashed in early and often in front of a home crowd.

The Saints scored 12 points in the first quarter, but the Hawks poured in 26 points.

The Hawk defensive pressure created 41 turnovers by the Saints and limited Melcher-Dallas to just 14 more points over the final three quarters of play.

“The girls did a good job of applying ball pressure forcing several turnovers. The girls ran the floor pretty well tonight,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Jerry Hulsing said.

“We did a better job in the second half of running our offense because we had good ball movement and spacing. I think that all the girls did a good job of playing hard tonight,” he added

Lynnville-Sully (19-3) hosts Wayne, Corydon, a 49-44 winner over Moravia Tuesday, in a regional semifinal game Friday. Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Sully.

In the other half of the regional bracket Tuesday night, English Valleys defeated H-L-V, 68-29, and North Mahaska got past Belle Plaine, 48-46. English Valleys hosts North Mahaska Friday night in a semifinal.

Semifinal winners meet 7 p.m. Monday at Pella Christian High School in Pella for the Class 1A Region 5 championship.

The Hawks built a 34-14 halftime lead. They extended it with an 18-8 run in the third quarter, and finished the game by outscoring the Saints 11-4 in the final eight minutes.

Cassie Cullen, a senior, paced the Hawks with 14 points, three assists and four steals. Junior Madison Rasmusson chipped in with 10 points, three assists and six steals. Junior Lysandra James corralled eight rebounds and scored eight points.

Lynnville-Sully shot 39 percent, 26-of-67, from the field and went 6-of-15 from the free-throw line.

Senior Lyndsay Terpstra made four steals in the game and dished out three assists. Terpstra and Kasiah Ehresman each hit a 3-pointer and Rasmusson drained two threes on the night.

The Saints got eight points each from Kaylee Houston and Jessi Anderson. Anderson had 12 rebounds. They shot 30 percent, 12-of-40, from the field.

Lynnville-Sully 26-8-18-11—63

Melcher-Dallas 12-2-8-4—26

Lynnville-Sully — Cullen 14, Rasmusson 10, James 8, B. Vos 7, Terpstra 7, Van Wyk 6, Van Rees 3, M. Vos 3, Ehresman 3, Rozendaal 2.

Melcher-Dallas — Houston 8, Anderson 8, Roland 4, Roush 2, Wilson 2, Peterson 2.