Ninth-ranked Pella downs Cardinal boys

Responding was key for Newton High’s Cardinals Tuesday. Newton’s boys responded in the correct way to a disappointing loss Friday at Oskaloosa. They responded correctly to having one of their top scorers sidelined with an injury.

Despite another slow start, the Cardinals were in position to upend Class 3A’s ninth-ranked Pella Little Dutch Tuesday. Newton erased an eight-point first-quarter deficit to trail by three at halftime and to make it a back-and-forth game in the second half.

The Dutch got a three-point play from Will Warner to open the fourth quarter to push the lead to 44-36. Pella fended off each challenge Newton mounted in the final eight minutes, including hitting seven free throws in the last minute to post a 59-48 Little Hawkeye Conference win over the Cardinals.

“The effort was there all night,” said Nick Wilkins, Cardinal head coach, following the loss at home. “We talked about responding tonight. We believe we’re a better team than Oskaloosa, but we shot 5-of-30 last Friday night from 3-point range and some night’s that happens.

“Our guys didn’t get down. Shots weren’t falling for us again early tonight. The guys stayed with it. Not having Nick (Easley) was tough tonight but Drew Stout played amazing for us. Everyone stepped up tonight.”

Senior guard Nick Easley suffered a foot injury at the end of Friday’s game at Oskaloosa and was on crutches Tuesday. Easley said he was hoping to be back by Friday’s home game against Norwalk. Wilkins said Easley’s status for that game is still unknown.

Wilkins pointed to the defensive job the Cardinals did against a Pella team that has already scored 90 points in a game this season. He said to hold Pella, which scores in the 80s, to 59 points was tremendous.

After Warner’s three-point play at the start of the fourth quarter, Newton responded with a 3-pointer by Jake Bennett and a tip-in by Joseph Banfield to trim the margin to three points, 44-41, by the 6:18 mark.

The Little Dutch scored the next six points. Devin Shores scored for Newton with 4:14 on the game clock to make it 50-43. Connor Gholson came up with a steal leading to a bucket by Banfield at it was 50-45 with 2:15 remaining to play.

Jackson Scholton sank both ends of a one-and-one for Pella to push the lead back to seven. Gholson’s only three of the night came at the 1:25 mark and Newton was back to within four with 1:25 left.

Following a timeout, Pella was content to work the ball on offense. Newton used fouls to stop the clock and extend the game. Ryan VanWyk went 3-for-4 at the free-throw line for Pella. With 5.2 seconds left,

Isaac Naaktgeboren was fouled plus a technical foul was assessed against Wilkins. Naaktgeboren downed four straight free throws to seal the game for the Little Dutch.

“Drew and Jake Bennett hit some big threes at big spots for us in the game. They are guys not looked upon by other teams as scorers and to have them execute and score for us tonight was great,” Wilkins said. “We had guys doing a lot of little things right out there and we saw a lot of good things from our team tonight.”

Newton’s offense was slow to get going again. The Cardinals trailed 7-3 when Bennett drained a 3-pointer with 2:50 left in the first quarter. Pella carried a 14-6 lead into the second period.

Grant Judkins opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer for Pella. Newton’s Tyler Wood made a high lob pass to the basket and Jordan Travis finished with a basket. Banfield scored for the Cardinals to cut the deficit to seven, 17-10.

Newton was down 21-12 when Stout and Bennett drained back-to-back threes. A trey by Wood at the 3:23 mark made it 23-21. Pella responded with a outback by Warner and a field goal by Garrett Jansen.

Wood netted a 3-pointer with 1:32 left in the first half and Newton wad down by three, 27-24. A strong defensive stand and Newton had the basketball at the end of the second quarter. A long 3-point attempt by Wood with about three seconds left on the clock bounced off the front of the rim.

Newton trailed 27-24 at the break.

The Cardinals outscored the Little Dutch 6-2 in the opening two minutes of the third quarter to take their only lead, 30-29, of the night. Travis had the first basket which was answered by a bucket from Pella’s Warner. Wood scored then Banfield’s field goal put the Cardinals up.

Pella claimed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and Seth Johnson buried a three. Wood had a three-point play at Newton’s end with 4:38 left in the third and it was 34-33. Down by three, Stout drilled a trey at the 3:35 mark to tie the game at 36-36, but Pella scored five unanswered to lead 41-36 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Little Dutch cashed in on 21-of-27 free throw attempts in the game while Newton attempted just two, hitting both, free throws in the game.

“Hey, as I told our guys after the game, this is still a work in progress and we not quite halfway through the season,” Wilkins said. “We get to play these teams again, which is fun. We’ll build on this and get ready for Norwalk on Friday.”

Wood topped the Newton scoring list with 11 points followed by Banfield with 10. Bennett added nine and Stout had six — all those points came on 3-point field goals from the two guards.

Naaktegboren was 7-of-8 at the line on his way to a team-high 16 points for Pella. Warner tossed in 12 points. Pella improved to 7-2 overall and 3-2 in Little Hawkeye play.

Newton is 1-4 in LHC action and 5-5 overall. The Cardinals host Norwalk Friday.

Pella  14-13-14-18—59

Newton  6-18-12-12—48

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 1-0-2-2, Stout 0/2-0-0-6, Wood 2/2-1-1-11, Bennett 0/3-0-3-9, Banfield 5-0-3-10, Gholson 1/1-1-4-6, Travis 2-0-4-4. TOTALS: 11/8-2-18-48.

Pella (FG/3-pt): Vande Lune 1/1-0-3-5, Naaktgeboren 3/1-7-2-16, Johnson 0/2-0-3-6, Warner 4/1-1-0-12, Judkins 0/1-0-0-3, Scholton 1-2-1-4, VanWyk 0-9-1-9, Jansen 1-2-0-4. TOTALS: 10/6-21-10-59.

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