March 19, 2024

Tigers hand Cardinal boys LHC setback

Newton High’s Cardinals started Thursday night’s Little Hawkeye Conference showdown at home against Grinnell’s Tigers with a lot of promise. Jwan Roush scored the opening five points on a basket and a 3-pointer and Connor Gholson’s first 3-pointer of the night made it 8-1.

By the time the first quarter closed the visiting Tigers had claimed an 18-17 lead. It was going to be nip-and-tuck throughout the second period. The Cardinals trailed 34-32 at the break.

The back-and-forth continued in the third quarter. Gholson drained a 3-pointer with 4:04 on the clock, to close it to 45-43. Newton went flat from that point on as Grinnell rolled up an 82-61 win over the Cardinals.

“Nothing is funny about getting embarrassed. It’s the first time it has happened to this team this year,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “We beat Grinnell by 19 at their place, and they put up a 21-point win over us tonight.”

“This group has played really well, and shown a lot of heart throughout this season. Now, we’re going to see how we can bounce back from one of these,” Liley said.

Grinnell (11-5, 6-4 in LHC) gave Chariton its only loss of the season, 61-58, on Jan. 16. Newton (10-6, 5-4) lost to Chariton 74-70 Monday.

The Tigers pulled away from the Cardinals in the final four minutes of the third quarter on a 14-4 run. It began with a three-point play by Cade McKnight and a 3-pointer by Sam Allen. Grinnell held a 59-47 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Newton had a 5-2 surge to start the period on free throws by Gholson and Garrett Sturtz and a steal for a layup by Roush. Down by 11, 61-50, the Cardinals got rocked by the Tigers from the outside. The Tigers hit three treys and had a tip-in bucket to push their advantage to 72-50.

Grinnell shot 50 percent, 10-of-20, from beyond the 3-point arc in the game, hitting six of those in the second half. The Tigers held a 35-29 rebounding edge on the Cardinals.

“The rebounding totals will tell you the score when it comes to Newton basketball this year,” Liley said. “If we’re going to be the type of team we’d like to be here at the end of the season, we have to be a lot better on the boards than what we were tonight.”

Gholson finished with 24 points and six rebounds for Newton. He had two steals — one going for a dunk in the first half. Sturtz scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out two assists. Joseph Banfield and Morgan Maher each had two assists.

Allen netted four threes for Grinnell as he scored 23 points and Zaine Leedom hit three 3-pointers on his way to 22 points. McKnight, the Tigers’ 6-foot-8-inch forward, added 16 points.

“Maybe it’s good to feel this tonight so we know what we’re trying to avoid,” Liley said. “First, it was Chariton and now Grinnell — two teams our team is going to have to beat if it wants to move forward in the playoffs later this month. They are both in our substate.”

Liley said he plans to work on things to help his team prepare to have an opportunity to get past Chariton and Grinnell in the postseason.

Foul trouble continues to hamper Newton in games. Liley said some of it comes from the fact the Cardinals face a lot of teams with height advantages. He said the Cardinals have to learn to play defense without fouling.

Grinnell sank 16-of-21 free throw attempts while Newton went 13-of-17.

Newton has no time to worry about the loss. On Friday, the Cardinals tip off at 7:30 p.m. at Oskaloosa in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

Grinnell  18-16-25-23—82

Newton  17-15-15-14—61

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 4-3-2-11, Stout 1/1-0-1-5, Roush 2/1-2-3-9, Bennett 1-0-5-2, Banfield 1-1-1-3, Gholson 6/2-6-2-24, Ventling 1-0-3-2, Maher 2-0-4-4, Graham 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 18/4-13-21-61.

Grinnell (FG/3-pt): Hansen 0/1-0-1-3, Scherf 0-0-1-0, Harris 2-2-2-6, Thompson 0-1-3-1, Allen 5/4-1-0-23, Leedom 4/2-5-3-22, McKnight 5-6-4-16, Abrahamson 0/1-0-0-3, Mitchell 2/1-1-2-8. TOTALS: 18/10-16-17-82.

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