Cardinals stuff Wildcats

One final time — seniors Devin Shores, Jordan Travis and Tyler Wood rang the victory bell together Thursday night following a Newton High Cardinal 79-70 win over visiting Carlisle.

There was just one spoiler for the final home game, fellow senior Nick Easley was home ill as was Cardinal head coach Nick Wilkins.

“We’ve been without Coach Wilkins at practice and Nick (Easley) has been out too. We’re hoping to see them Friday at practices,” said Brian Conway, NHS assistant coach, who served as head coach Thursday night. “We’ve told the guys to drink lots of fluids, go home and get a lot of rest.”

Newton finished the regular season with two wins this week. The Cardinals won at Winterset Monday.

Conway said the big thing right now is for the Cardinals to stay healthy as they head into the postseason. Newton plays Ankeny Monday in the first round of Class 4A Substate 7 tournament action at Southeast Polk at 6:30 p.m.

“We want to be firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs,” Conway said.

At times Thursday, the Cardinals appeared to be firing on all cylinders. The Wildcats opened with a three-point play by Josh Hagedorn. Newton responded with back-to-back 3-pointers from Wood. A three-point play by Shores and a fastbreak layup by sophomore Connor Gholson put the Cardinals up 11-5.

Carlisle went on a 13-5 run to gain an 18-14 lead with a minute remaining in the first quarter. Freshman Garrett Sturtz scored for Newton then Gholson netted a field goal just before the buzzer to knot the score at 18-all.

A jump shot by junior Drew Stout put the Cardinals up 23-21. Wood nailed another 3-pointer to push the advantage to five points by the 5:53 mark of the second quarter.

Newton never trailed again but the Cardinals couldn’t coast. The Wildcats kept coming. Newton held a 36-30 halftime lead.

“I was getting a little frustrated because the game was called pretty tight and I was in foul trouble tonight,” Wood said. “I obviously wanted to play as much as I could in my last game here at home.”

Wood, who was honored before the game as Newton’s all-time leading scorer and reaching the 1,000-point mark for his NHS career, picked up his third foul with 3:45 left in the third quarter and his fourth midway through the fourth quarter.

“But, overall, this was an amazing outcome to our final home game. We’re on a little winning streak now and I’m sure it will help going into the playoffs,” Wood said. “Getting honored before the game was tremendous. I really appreciate it and I share reaching the scoring milestone with all my teammates over the years.”

Carlisle used a 6-2 surge at the start of the third quarter to get within two points, 38-36, Gholson drained a 3-pointer and Travis scored to push Newton back up. Stout’s three made it 46-38 halfway through the period.

Newton carried a 52-43 lead into the final period. Shores and junior Joseph Banfield helped keep the Cardinals calm in a wild fourth quarter. Each had a drive to the basket after a lot of scrambling by both teams on the court.

Then came a two-handed, rim-rocking dunk by Travis with 4:43 remaining to put Newton up 58-48. Carlisle battled through to get within four, 60-56, on a 3-pointer by Jordan Pierce.

Banfield hit the front end of a one-and-one then Sturtz sank two free throws for Newton. The Cardinals cashed in on 24-of-32 free throw attempts in the game. The Wildcats went 19-of-23 from the line.

“Yes, it did get a little wild, but all the kids did a good job tonight. We had good spacing on offense and moved the ball well,” Conway said. “I was really happy we didn’t just settle for threes all night. We have a lot of very good shooters, but we also did a good job of attacking the basket and scoring.”

Conway said Shores and Banfield are very athletic kids and are quick, so when a team has bigger post players guard those two “we like those match ups because Devin and Joe can put it on the floor and drive to the basket.”

Despite foul trouble, Wood led the Cardinals with 16 points. Gholson fired in 15 points. Shores and Sturtz finished with 13 points apiece. Sturtz was 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.

The game featured a combined 44 fouls called. There was a technical foul assessed against each head coach.

Hagedorn paced the Wildcats with 21 points followed by Jaryd Veith and Ty Erb with 12 points each. Thomas Donovan added 11 points.

Newton’s junior varsity ended its season with a 51-33 win at home. The Cardinals led the Wildcats 24-14 at halftime.

Sturtz fired in 13 points for the NHS junior varsity with Josh Ventling adding 10 points. Josh Gulling scored eight points and Skyler Tool had four points. Scoring three points each were Tyler Stanton and Trey Vanderlaan. Justin Fischer, Morgan Maher, Reagan Maple and Cole Downey had two points apiece.

The Newton freshman appeared to be on their way to a win also, but Carlisle used a 10-2 run at the end of the game to win 41-33. Carlisle led 19-17 at halftime. Newton charged to the front in third quarter up 28-26 going into the fourth quarter.

“ It was another tough loss, the boys worked hard all season long,” said Nick Steinbach, NHS freshman coach. “They gave a great effort tonight, had the opportunity, but just couldn’t pull it out. They competed tonight and all season long, that is all you can ask for.”

De’Andre Roush led the Cardinals with nine points while Jaron Roush and Grayson Graham each had seven points. Nathan Van Zee scored four points. Scoring two points each were Brandon Telepnev, Grant Garvis and Zac Combs.

Carlisle  18-12-13-27—70

Newton  18-18-16-27—79

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 6-1-3-13, Stout 1/1-3-1-8, Wood 0/3-7-4-16, Banfield 3-2-0-8, Gholson 2/3-2-2-15, Travis 3-0-2-6, Sturtz 2-9-3-13, Bennett 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 17/7-24-17-79.

Carlisle (FG/3-pt); Hagedorn 6-9-5-21, Erb 4-4-3-12, Burk 0/1-0-1-3, Donovan 2/2-1-4-11, Veith 2/1-5-2-12, Pierce 0/2-0-1-6, Evans 1/1-0-4-5, Sanders 0-0-2-0, Schmitt 0-0-5-0. TOTALS: 15/7-19-27-70.

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