March 19, 2024

Cardinals fall to Eagles

PELLA — Newton High’s Cardinal boys are looking for a formula of getting out in front or staying even with a team early in basketball games. Too many times this season the Cardinals have had to dig their way out of a first-half or a third-quarter hole.

It happened again Friday against Pella Christian’s Eagles in Little Hawkeye Conference play. Playing in front of a homecoming crowd, the Eagles stayed out in front of the visiting Cardinals most of contest and turned away each rally Newton put together.

Pella Christian posted a 62-59 win over Newton. It was a close contest, but the Cardinals opened the game falling behind 5-0.

Tyler Wood delivered the first of three 3-pointers to complete a 6-0 run by Newton and a 3-pointer from Drew Stout pushed the Cardinal lead to 9-7. Pella Christian was up 12-9 at the end of the first quarter.

A putback by Joseph Banfield made it 12-11 to start the second period and Connor Gholson scored to give Newton a one-point lead. The teams played a back-and-forth contest, but the Eagles took a 21-17 lead into halftime.

Pella Christian extended its lead on a 13-6 run in the third quarter to lead 34-23 at the midway mark. Banfield completed two three-point plays for the Cardinals to make it 38-29 at the 2:39 mark.

Newton faced a 42-34 deficit heading into the fourth quarter.

Jake Bennett and Tyler Wood drained back-to-back 3-pointers to propel Newton to within two, 44-42. A basket by Garrett Sturtz tied the game at 44-all and Banfield put the Cardinals up 46-44.

The Eagles regained the lead at 50-46. Gholson hit a three and had a three-point play to knot the score at 52-52 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game. Pella Christian outscored Newton 6-1 to lead 59-53.

Wood knocked down a trey and it was countered by a free throw from the Eagles to make it a four-point game, 60-56, with 12 seconds left. Wood’s third 3-pointer of the night came with 2.5 seconds on the clock. Levi Jungling sank both free throws for the Eagles with one second on the block to seal the win.

Newton hit nine 3-pointers in the game. Gholson finished with 16 points, hitting three threes. Banfield scored 12 points. Wood scored 10 points.

David Kacmarynski score 20 points for Pella Christian. Jungling had 17 points and Mitch Fopma scored 10 points. The Eagles were 11-of-16 from the free-throw line while the Cardinals were 6-of-9.

Newton (6-7) has lost four straight in Little Hawkeye Conference play for a 1-6 record. The Cardinals were still without senior guard Nick Easley, sidelined with a foot injury.

Newton is idle Tuesday. The Cardinals host Class 3A sixth-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes (10-3) in LHC action for NHS Legacy Night Friday.

On Thursday at Newton, Newton’s freshmen lost 43-40 to Pella Christian. Grayson Graham scored 17 points. DeAndre Roush and Nathan Van Zee had four points each. Dalton Pauley scored three points and Rhandyn Oldfield had two points.

“The boys keep climbing the mountain just can’t get to the top,” said Nick Steinbach, Newton freshman head coach. “We just need to go back to work at practice and continue to work at getting better.”

The Newton junior varsity also played Thursday at home. No report was received on the game.

Newton  9-8-17-25—59

Pella Christian  12-9-21-20—62

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 2-0-3-4, Stout 1/1-0-2-5, Wood 0/3-1-0-10, Bennett 0/2-0-0-6, Banfield 5-2-2-12, Gholson 3/3-1-4-16, Travis 1-2-2-4, Maher 0-0-2-0, Sturtz 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 13/9-6-17-59.

Pella Christian (FG/3-pt): Jungling 2/3-4-2-17, Vermeer 1/1-1-0-6, Holwerda 1/1-2-2-7, Posthuma 1-0-2-2, Fopma 4-2-4-10, Kacmarynski 9-2-3-20, Van Kooten 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 18/5-11-15-62.

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