Cardinals drub Indians

Energy and inspiration came in waves Friday night for Newton High’s Cardinals.

Newton’s boys were coming off a disheartening loss, 81-54, at Chariton Thursday. They were mired in a four-game losing skid, but also hadn’t won a Little Hawkeye Conference game in their last six conference outings.

Senior Night and the annual NHS Coaches vs. Cancer game put sparks in the Cardinal game plan. Having 6-year-old Atlas Rae on the Cardinal bench and giving fist bumps to the starters during introductions gave them some inspiration. Rae is battling cancer and was one of three honoree individuals Sarah Coy and Sharaeah Sharp — for Coaches vs. Cancer.

“Having Atlas out there meant a lot to our team. The kids loved having him there. We talked about it before the game and at halftime,” said Nick Wilkins, Newton head coach. “Don’t take anything for granted and enjoy these moments. There’s a lot of people out there fighting this disease. We wanted to put smiles on faces.”

Smiles indeed.

The Cardinals made a statement Friday night in rout of visiting Oskaloosa’s Indians, 84-42. Led by the four seniors — Devin Shores, Tyler Wood, Nick Easley and Jordan Travis — the Cardinals avenged an earlier conference loss at Oskaloosa.

Newton High fans saw a two-handed dunk, a 1,000-point milestone and a Cardinal boys’ win. The Cardinals left no doubt they were ready to play in front of a home crowd, racing to a 19-4 lead by the end of the first quarter. A four-point play — a 3-pointer and a free throw — by Wood at the 5:17 mark of the second period put the Cardinals up 25-12.

Wood needed 20 points to reach the 1,000-point career scoring mark. He got 21 points, 18 came in the first half. Wood went to the Newton bench then came back in late in the second period. Instead of him taking a shot, he made a lob pass to Travis, who made the basket.

Travis went up for another lob pass to begin the third quarter. Easley made the pass and Travis delivered with a two-handed dunk. Shores got in the act with a three-point play to push Newton’s advantage to 49-23 with 7:03 on the third-quarter clock.

Wood was fouled on a 3-point field goal attempt at the 2:28 mark of the third quarter. He missed the first free throw, but was right on the next two. Wood is the second all-time scorer in NHS history at 1,001 points, just 19 points behind the top spot owned by Curt Greeley at 1,020 points (2003-2006).

“I didn’t know really how close I was until they announced at the end of the second quarter I just needed two points to reach it,” Wood said. “It’s nice, but getting this team win on Senior Night was much more important to me. to do this with my fellow seniors — my brothers — was special.”

“It was a crazy atmosphere tonight. It was loud and this was pretty special,” said Easley, who had six points. “I love these guys.”

Shores, who had seven points, agreed.

“This was a great team win. We really needed that one,” Shores said. “It was Senior Night and Coaches vs. Cancer and we wanted to put on a good show for everybody.”

Travis finished with 14 points and his first-ever dunk.

“It was a great pass.The environment gave us a little extra boost. It was a great win,” Travis said. “Last night, we didn’t have a lot of the guys on the bench. To have those guys there provided motivation and you always have an extra boost from Senior Night.”

Newton shot 56 percent, 28-of-50, from the field and hit nine 3-pointers. Three of those treys came from the hot hand of sophomore Connor Gholson, who fired in 19 points and had two steals. The Cardinals sank 19-of-28 charity tosses.

Junior Joseph Banfield grabbed nine rebounds and had three assists while Shores claimed eight rebounds, made two steals and had three assists

Ryan Reiter had 11 points for Oskaloosa.

“As a team, we knew the win by Oskaloosa earlier was a long shot. We believed we were the better team and we have play some really good basketball over this stretch without having the wins to show for it,” Wilkins said. “The kids came out and played together showing the kind of basketball team we really are. This win will be a good way to go into next week’s games.”

Newton is 2-8 in LHC play and goes to Class 3A third-ranked Pella Tuesday. The Cardinals are 7-10 overall.

Oskaloosa  4-16-17-5—42

Newton  19-25-22-18—84

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 3-1-2-7, Stout 1-0-2-2, Wood 1/4-7-1-21, Banfield 4-0-0-8, Gholson 2/3-6-2-19, Easley 1/1-1-0-6, Travis 6-2-2-14, Maher 0-1-0-1, Vanderlaan 0/1-0-0-3, Sturtz 0-0-1-0, Ventling 1-1-0-3. TOTALS: 19/9-19-11-84.

Oskaloosa (FG/3-pt): Lanphier 0-3-0-3, Van Veldhalzen 1-0-2-2, Johnson 0/1-0-5-3, Moore 2/1-0-3-7, DeKock 4-1-5-9, Silvers 0-0-1-0, DeJong 0-1-1-1, Kruse 0-2-1-2, Reiter 1/3-0-1-11, Vetroubek 2-0-1-4, Ginaven 0-0-3-0. TOTALS: 10/5-7-23-42.

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