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Defensive play was key to success on their home basketball court Tuesday night for Newton High’s Cardinal boys.
The Cardinals finally marked one up in the win column of Little Hawkeye Conference play. Tough defense in the final three quarters fueled the Cardinals’ run to a 55-45 win over the visiting Grinnell Tigers.
“Our defense tonight was great. Grinnell is so big and we were a little tentative in the first quarter at both ends of the court,” said Nick Wilkins, Newton head coach. “The guys settled down in the second quarter and started to take control of things on the court.”
Wilkins pointed to the defense of the Cardinals’ post players — Jordan Travis, Joseph Banfield and Devin Shores. He said despite being undersized five or six inches by Grinnell’s 6-foot-4-inch Nate Vosburg, 6-foot-7-inch Cade McKnight and 6-foot-6-inch Denton York, “our guys got more physical inside from the second quarter on and didn’t allow many second- chance shots by Grinnell.”
York and 6-foot-3-inch guard Sam Allen pushed the Tigers out to a 6-2 lead by the 5:31 mark of the first quarter. Grinnell was up 13-6 at the end of the period.
Down 19-8 with 6:13 left in the second quarter, the Cardinals began their run. Nick Easley kicked things off with a field goal followed by a 3-pointer. York got a follow shot to go for the Tigers at the 3:24 mark. That would be the last basket until the halftime buzzer-beater by Luke Honold for Grinnell.
Tyler Wood drained a 3-pointer for the Cardinals. Travis scored on the inside and Wood sank both ends of a one-and-one to narrow the gap to one point, 21-20. Wood came up with the basketball at the defensive end, drove toward the Cardinal basket then passed the ball to Shores, who made a cross-court pass to Drew Stout for the fast break bucket.
Stout’s basket gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game, 22-21. Wood hit two more free throws for a three-point lead. Grinnell’s Honold scored at the buzzer to make it a one-point game with Newton up 24-23 at the break.
Easley started the second half with a basket but the Tigers reeled off seven unanswered points. A basket by Banfield interrupted the Tiger run. McKnight hit a 3-pointer for Grinnell for a 33-28 lead.
Easley drove to the basket for two. Grinnell was working to take time off the clock. Newton’s defense stayed pat and Travis came up with a big steal which led to a tying 3-pointer by Wood with 50 seconds remaining the third quarter.
Knotted at 33-all, the teams headed into the final eight minutes of the game. Vosburg got loose inside for two baskets while Newton struggled at the free-throw line in the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter.
Connor Gholson scored for the Cardinals to make it 37-35.
“We just clamped down defensively and really didn’t let them have many open looks at the basket. We put Drew (Stout) on Allen and he did a great job down the stretch,” Wilkins said. “This was a great team win for us. Our guys are coming together as a team. Everybody is finding their roles and we have people stepping up at crucial times.”
Easley headed to the foul line with 5:13 on the clock and Newton trailed by two points. A technical foul was assessed against a Grinnell player at the same time. Easley sank one-of-two tosses then Wood stepped up and hit both technical free throws to put the Cardinals up 38-37 and Newton had the basketball.
Newton missed a shot but Travis came away with a defensive rebound that led to an Easley basket. Honold rang up a trey from the top of the arch to tie the game at 40-40 at the 4:11 mark.
The Cardinals never trailed again. Easley put them back on top with a basket and Banfield scored following a Grinnell turnover. Up by two, Wood made a drive to the basket, scored and was fouled. Wood dropped in the foul shot for the 47-42 lead.
Gholson, Wood and Shores went to the free-throw line down the stretch, going 8-for-8, to seal the victory. The Cardinals were 18-of-25 from the line for the game, while the Tigers were 5-of-6
“We began attacking the basket more, which allowed us to get to the line, plus at the end they were trying to extend the game by sending us to the line,” Wilkins said.
Wood, who was 9-of-10 at the line, finished with 17 points and Easley had 16 points.
Honold led the Tigers with 11 points and York added 10.
Newton is 2-0 coming off the Christmas break. Wilkins said even though the Cardinals lost in double overtime to Des Moines Christian just before the break, his team’s success began with that game.
“We had two good looks to win that game and Saturday’s win at Knoxville was a good game to get back into things. And tonight’s game was another good step forward for us as a team,” Wilkins said.
“We don’t have practice tomorrow because of no school. We’ll come back and practice hard Thursday to get ready for Oskaloosa. Playing Osky at Osky is always a challenge and we have to be ready to play with the same intensity we had tonight on Friday.”
Newton’s junior varsity won 50-43 over Grinnell. Garrett Sturtz had 16 points and Morgan Maher had 14 points. Josh Ventling had five rebounds and three assists.
Grinnell won the freshman game, 65-18. Newton got eight points from Grayson Graham and six points from DeAndre Roush.
The Cardinal varsity improved to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in Little Hawkeye play. Newton goes to Oskaloosa Friday in conference action.
Grinnell 13-10-10-12—45
Newton 6-18-9-22—55
Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 1-2-0-4, Stout 1-0-3-2, Banfield 2-0-2-4, Gholson 1-4-1-6, Easley 6/1-1-1-16, Travis 2-2-1-6. TOTALS: 14/3-18-9-55.
Grinnell (FG/3-pt): Schultz 0/1-0-2-3, Honold 3/1-2-3-11, Wray 1-0-0-2, Allen 2/1-0-1-7, Harris 1-0-3-2, Graham 0-0-3-0, Vosburg 2-0-4-4, McKnight 0/1-3-2-6, York 5-0-2-10.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com