March 29, 2024

Newton boys pull out victory late at home

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Never doubt the friendly confines of a home court. Newton High’s Cardinal boys trailed by as many as 16 points in the third quarter and faced a nine-point deficit with more than four minutes remaining in Tuesday’s non-conference game against Bondurant-Farrar.

“We were down 54-45 with 4:41 left in the game, and I took a timeout. We refocused, dug in on defense and rebounded the ball better down the stretch,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “We ran a set play and Garrett (Sturtz) hit a 3-pointer to get us going.”

Sophomore guard Garrett Sturtz stepped to the free-throw line with seven seconds on the clock with the score knotted at 60-all. Sturtz drained both foul shots to put the Cardinals in front of the visiting BlueJays.

A last-second shot by the Jays bounced off the rim. Newton snapped a two-game losing skid with a 62-60 win at home. Bondurant-Farrar (7-6) lost for the first time in three games.

Sturtz rang up three 3-pointers, went 4-for-4 at the line and led the Cardinals with 25 points. The sophomore has scored 55 points in Newton’s past two games. Against B-F, Sturtz handed out four assists and had five rebounds.

Speaking of rebounding, junior guard Connor Gholson got on track again offensively after going scoreless on Friday in a lost at Norwalk. Gholson went into Tuesday’s game three points shy of the No. 10 spot in NHS career scoring.

Gholson netted 22 points, hitting two 3-pointers and sinking 4-of-6 free throws. He became the 10th all-time career scorer in Cardinal boys’ history with 652 points. Gholson passed Tom Bowie, who had 633 points from 1968-70.

“We started slow tonight. As I’ve said all along, we’re a work in progress and part of it is learning how to compete at the high level we’ve been competing at and handling taking a couple of hard shots like we had last week,” Liley said.

“Bondurant-Farrar came in well prepared and well coached for us tonight. That means teams are respecting Newton basketball and what we’ve been doing this season.”

Newton led 9-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Jays surged ahead on a 23-11 run in the second period to claim a 29-20 lead at the break.

Liley said he took a timeout in the third quarter when the Cardinals fell behind by 16 points. He said he wanted to get the Cardinals under control and focused on getting stops. He said Bondurant-Farrar had outrebounded Newton by 10 in the first half.

“That’s not the kind of basketball we’ve been playing this season. We have been rebounding the ball well. We got stops and worked back into the game,” Liley said. “We knew Bondurant-Farrar was aggressive to the basket to draw fouls. Part of our defensive game is to stand in there and take charging fouls — we took six of them tonight.”

The timeout came after a Cardinal 3-pointer had cut the deficit to 13 points. By the end of the third period, Newton held a 45-44 lead.

“But they charged ahead of us again in the fourth quarter, getting up by nine. Our kids responded well after I took the timeout at that point, and we were able to win the game,” Liley said.

Bondurant-Farrar went to the foul line 24 times and hit 15 shots. Newton was 8-of-10 at the free-throw line. The Cardinals drained six 3-pointers to the Jays’ three. Bondurant-Farrar had a 30-14 edge in rebounding.

Payton Duit lead the BlueJays with 21 points, sinking 7-of-11 free throw attempts. Dylon Storey added 15 points.

Newton won the junior varsity game, 48-42. Grayson Graham scored 20 points, which included four 3-pointers and had four steals. Trey Vanderlaan and Josh Gulling each had 10 points.

Vanderlaan and Justin Fischer had five rebounds apiece. De’Andre Roush and Vanderlaan had three assists each.

Newton’s Cole Webster hit six 3-pointers on his way to scoring 30 points in the freshman game. Newton lost 44-36.

Newton (8-4) steps back into Little Hawkeye Conference play at home Friday when Pella Christian comes into the NHS gym. In December, the Cardinals lost 75-63 at Pella Christian. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be a great game. Our guys are ready to play Pella Christian again. We didn’t play very well at their place,” Liley said. Newton has a 3-3 LHC mark.

Bondurant-Farrar  6-23-15-16—60

Newton  9-11-25-17—62

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 6/3-4-1-25, Roush 3/1-0-3-9, Banfield 2-0-5-4, Gholson 6/2-4-3-22, Vanderlaan 0-0-1-0, Ventling 1-0-2-2, Maher 0-0-4-0. TOTALS: 18/6-8-19-62.

Bondurant-Farrar (FG/3-pt): Moeller 1-0-4-2, Wright 2-2-1-6, Bedler 1/1-2-0-7, Storey 3/2-3-2-15, Duit 7-7-3-21, Zarr 3-0-3-6, Carlson 1-1-3-3. TOTALS: 18/3-15-16-60.

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