Ankeny beats Newton in substate play

PLEASANT HILL — Newton High’s Cardinals had their runs to the lead in Monday night’s Class 4A Substate opener. But a 14-6 third-quarter surge by Ankeny’s Hawks put them up 47-41 going into the final eight minutes.

That was enough to separate the Hawks from the Cardinals. Newton wasn’t able to limit Ankeny from scoring in the fourth quarter as each team tallied 17 points in that eight-minute span, leaving the Hawks with a 64-58 victory.

“Our kids came out and battled. It took our kids a little time to adjust to how the game was called — these official did a great job and called it fair both ways, but the game was called differently than we’re used to,” said Nick Wilkins, Newton head coach.

“The guys did what they’ve done all season. They kept battling.”

Two free throws and a basket by Connor Gholson put the Cardinals up 6-5 with 5:23 left in the first quarter. Tyler Wood nailed a 3-pointer to make it 9-6, but the Hawks got back-to-back baskets by Drew Maschoff and Chris McLeod to regain the lead.

Down by one, Nick Easley’s three-point play put Newton back in front, 14-12. Newton found itself down 18-16 with less than 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

Ankeny took the basketball away and Tyler Inthalangsy was fouled on a shot. He hit the first of two free throws with 2.2 seconds on the clock. Trystan Cummins pulled the offensive rebound off the missed second attempt and score before the buzzer.

Newton faced a 21-16 deficit heading into the second quarter. Ankeny’s lead grew to 27-17 by the 5:47 mark.

Jordan Travis scored inside for Newton but Jonah Plummer scored on a Newton turnover to put the Hawks back up by 10 points.

Wood drove down the lane, put up a floater, scoring and drawing a foul. He sank the free throw to touch off a 16-4 run by the Cardinals. Joseph Banfield and Wood had consecutive baskets to pull the Cardinals to within, five, 31-26, with 3:09 left in the first half.

It was 33-26 when Easley scored followed by a transition basket by Shores on a long pass by Wood. Banfield made a baseline drive to the basket, and it was 33-32. Wood buried a 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds on the clock lifting the Cardinals to a 35-33 halftime lead.

The teams traded baskets coming out of the break. Maschoff connected for a 3-pointer at the 4:06 mark and 12 seconds later, McLeod was at the free-throw line, hitting one of two shots. Ankeny got up 41-37, but Banfield hit two straight buckets for Newton to draw even again.

Maschoff’s 3-pointer with 2:24 was the lead-in to a 6-0 run to end the third quarter. He drilled another three to open the fourth quarter to open a 50-41 lead. Newton could only get within six points the rest of the way.

“They picked up the pressure on us. We handled it pretty well, but it’s a different kind of game,” Wilkins said of Ankeny’s third-quarter move to the lead. “Again, it took us a little time to adjust because they ramped it up more.”

Wilkins said Ankeny came out a bit more aggressive early in the second half than the Cardinals. He said the Cardinals missed some open shots during the second half.

“It was a great fight by these guys. They executed the game plan,” Wilkins said. “Ankeny torched us a bit in man defense so we went to a 2-3 zone. Our 2-3 looked really good and the kids flowed around in it and played really well.”

Ankeny had four players score in double figures led by Maschoff with 13 points. Inthalangsy added 12 points. Conor Riordan and Plummer each had 10 points.

Wood led the Cardinals with 13 points and Gholson added 12 points.

Wood, Easley, Devin Shores and Travis are the four seniors on Newton’s team. The four are Wilkins’ first group to go from freshmen to seniors.

“They are a special of group for me since I’ve had them all four years I’ve been at Newton as head coach. We’ve grown and learned together,” Wilkins said. “They stayed together and kept the team together. They led by example, kept us fighting and moving forward.”

Newton finished 9-13. Wilkins said the expectations for this team was 14 to 16 wins.

“This team is a group of fighters. Look back at the number of games we were down by 10-plus points and came back to take the lead. Now, we didn’t win a lot of those games, but we came back and took the lead. Bad teams don’t do that — they get down and then go away,” Wilkins said of his 2014-15 team. “This is a great group of kids and I had fun coaching them.”

Newton  16-14-6-17—58

Ankeny  21-12-14-17—64

Newton (FG/3-pt): Shores 1-1-3-3, Stout 1-0-2-2, Wood 3/2-1-2-13, Bennett 0-0-2-0, Banfield 4-1-2-9, Gholson 4-4-0-12, Easley 4-1-2-9, Travis 2-0-1-4, Sturtz 2-2-1-6. TOTALS: 21/2-10-15-58.

Ankeny (FG/3-pt): Cummings 1-0-2-2, Shannon 0-2-2-2, Riordan 5-0-2-10, Rinker 2-2-1-6, Walljasper 0/1-1-1-4, Plummer 5-0-1-10, Inthalangsy 5-2-0-12, Mcleod 2-1-1-5, Roberts 0-0-3-0, Maschoff 1/3-2-3-13. TOTALS: 21/4-10-16-64.

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