Indians edge Cardinals on buzzer-beater

OSKALOOSA — Newton High’s Cardinal boys withstood a rough night shooting the basketball from the field Friday and had the opportunity to win a Little Hawkeye Conference road game. It came down to the final possession of regulation.

Jack Moore drained a jumper from the top of the key to beat the final buzzer, giving host Oskaloosa’s Indians a 48-46 win over the visiting Cardinal boys Friday night.

“We played pretty hard the entire game and played pretty good team defense minus a few possessions where we allowed ourselves to be screened and/or gave up second-chance points,” said Nick Wilkins, Cardinal head coach. “Even our defense on Osky’s game-winning shot was good with Jordan Travis switching on the ball screen, and having his hand high and in the face of their shooter on the shot.”

Newton’s Nick Easley hit the front end of a one-and-one with 3.5 seconds left in the game to forge a 46-all tie. It was a back-and-forth Little Hawkeye Conference contest throughout the game.

The Indians led 14-9 at the end of the first quarter and the Cardinals were up 27-25 at halftime. Oskaloosa outscored Newton 13-5 in the third to take a 38-32 lead into the fourth period.

“The game really came down to one team making shots and one team not, plain and simple. It was clear that their strategy was to make us hit outside shots and we had many open looks for our shooters,” Wilkins said. “We went 5-for-30 from 3-point range, and you can’t win games shooting 16 percent from three.”

Newton shot 33 percent, 17-of-52, from the field. Oskaloosa only took 38 shots, but hit 19 for 50 percent. The Indians were 9-of-14 from the free-throw line while the Cardinals hit 7-of-10 attempts.

The Indians also had a 39-23 rebounding edge. Jordan Travis controlled six rebounds for Newton and Joseph Banfield had five rebounds.

Devin Shores dished out three assists for the Cardinals. Connor Gholson, who had a 3-pointer, and Easley each had two steals.

Tyler Wood paced the Cardinals with 13 points and three assists. Drew Stout added 10 points and two steals on the night. Wood and Stout each hit two 3-pointers in the game. Easley finished with five points for the Cardinals.

Moore ended up with 20 points for Oskaloosa (4-4, 1-3 LHC).

“We have a big week this week with home games against Pella and Norwalk, so we are going to learn from this and get ready for Pella on Tuesday,” Wilkins said.

Newton, which is 1-3 in LHC play and 5-4 overall, hosts Pella in conference action Tuesday.

Newton  9-18-5-14—46

Oskaloosa  14-11-13-10—48

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 0-0-5-0, Stout 2/2-0-1-10, Wood 1/2-5-2-13, Bennett 1-0-2-2, Banfield 2-0-2-4, Gholson 1/1-1-1-6, Easley 2-1-3-5, Travis 2-0-1-4, Maher 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 12/5-7-17-46.

Oskaloosa (FG/3-pt): Johnson 1-0-5-2, Moore 5/1-7-3-20, DeKock 4-0-1-8, DeJong 3-0-1-6, Reiter 3-2-1-8, Votroubek 2-0-3-4. TOTALS: 18/1-9-14-48.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or
jsheets@newtondailynews.com