Cardinal girls win, boys lose at home; Area Prep Basketball Roundup

Newton High's girls win on their Senior Night. The Cardinal boys come up short in the Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader Friday night. Lynnville-Sully's boys are the 2016 SICL champion while Colfax-Mingo's boys drop their SICL crossover game. Collins-Maxwell/Baxter and Prairie City-Monroe's boys lost in HOIC road games Friday.

Newton girls 47, Norwalk girls 38

It was the final regular-season game for Newton High’s Cardinal girls. It was at home for Senior Night. It was a Little Hawkeye Conference matchup with Norwalk, which had beaten Newton earlier in the season.

The Cardinals celebrated Friday night at home by ringing the victory bell for a 47-38 win over the visiting Warriors. Newton trailed only once, 2-0, in the game.

“This was one we wanted for several reasons,” senior Alex Hutchinson said. “We as seniors wanted to win our final regular season game on Senior Night. We had a big crowd and it was #cure Night (Coaches vs. Cancer). We also wanted to have momentum into the playoffs next week.”

Newton started five seniors — Sydney Jenkins, Taylor Moon, Victoria Jordan, Hutchinson and Jessica Reynolds. The sixth senior, Hannah Rhoads, rotated with 2:30 gone in the first quarter and the score 2-2.

Reynolds tied the game with a basket off a pass from Jordan. Rhoads, Hutchinson and Jenkins pushed the lead to 8-2. Hutchinson’s second bucket put Newton up 10-2 with 1:59 left. A long 3-pointer by Shelby Nelson for Norwalk to close the gap to 13-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Two 3-pointers by Courtney Jacobsen put the Cardinals out to 19-12 in a frantic-paced second quarter. Moon and Shipley combined going after a loose ball, which was corralled by Ryanne Rausch. Rausch passed it to Jenkins for a layup. The Cardinals were up 23-18 at halftime.

Newton extended it lead to 36-23 by the two-minute mark of the third quarter and held a 36-27 advantage going into the final eight minutes. The Cardinals outscored the Warriors 7-2 in the first four minutes of the quarter.

Jordan finished off the win with two free thaws with 29.3 seconds remaining in the game.

Jacobsen led the Cardinals with nine points on three 3-pointers. Hutchinson had seven points and four rebounds. Reynolds pulled down seven rebounds.

“I never thought we didn’t have the game in hand tonight. The girls played very well defensively,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “We have some things to clean up offensively as we head into the playoffs.”

Norwalk got 14 points from Miranda Hughes. The Warriors went 18-of-19 from the free-throw line.

Newton finished the regular season at 11-10 and with the win, the Cardinals forged a tie with Norwalk at 5-7 for fourth in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

The Cardinals open 4A district action Wednesday at home against Bondurant-Farrar.

Norwalk won the junior varsity game, 36-29.

Norwalk boys 56, Newton boys 51

Poor shooting hampered Newton High’s Cardinal boys in their Little Hawkeye Conference finale Friday at home against Norwalk’s Warriors. The teams were tied, 17-17, at halftime.

The Warriors outscored the Cardinals 39-34 in the second half. Norwalk swept the LHC series with Newton this season with the 56-51 win.

Newton shot 23 percent, 5-of-21, from the field in the first half, going 3-of-10 from outside the 3-point arc. The Cardinals finished the game at 31 percent, 16-of-51, from the field. Norwalk shot 59 percent, 16-of-27 from the field for the game.

“When you shoot that poorly, it’s tough to win games. We played defense O.K., but there’s things we have to fix on that end also,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “You’re going to have some nights like this when the shots are not falling. We’re hoping we’ve gotten all the bad stuff out of our system.”

Newton has lost two in a row and four of its last five games.

Almost half of Norwalk’s points came from guard Luke Vaske, who fired in 31 points. The Warriors cashed in on 22-of-33 free throw attempts in the game and Vaske went 11-of-14 from the line.

Norwalk warded off the Cardinals in the final two minutes, sinking 13-of-16 foul shots.

Newton fell behind 10-5 in the first quarter. It was 12-7 when Trey Vanderlaan came off the Cardinal bench and knocked down the first 3-pointer of the contest for the team. Jwan Roush connected from 3-point range followed by Vanderlaan ringing up a trey to put Newton up 16-14 with 1:21 left in the first half.

A basket by Vaske tied the game at 17-all at the break. The third quarter started with Connor Gholson and Vaske trading a couple of baskets. Norwalk pushed ahead on an 8-0 run. Joseph Banfield and Garrett Sturtz had three-point plays for the Cardinals to close to within one point again.

Newton faced a 30-27 deficit heading to the fourth quarter. Sturtz tied it with a 3-pointer. The Cardinals could not string shots together and the Warriors popped back out to a 35-30 lead.

Sturtz drained a 3-pointer and Gholson hit a free throw to make it 35-34 with 4:30 left. The Cardinals fell behind 43-38. Roush hit a 3-pointer with 2:03 on the game clock to make it a two-point game, 43-41. Then came the free-throw parade by the Warriors.

Sturtz finished with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists. Gholson, who was shut out in an overtime loss at Norwalk, scored 12 points and claimed five rebounds.

With the loss, the Cardinals end up 6-6 in LHC play, tied for third with Grinnell. Newton is 11-8 overall and host Winterset Monday for Senior Night.

Lynnville-Sully boys 62, Keota boys 36

SULLY — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawks soared to a South Iowa Cedar League conference championship Friday at home. The Hawks, who tied for the SICL West title, hosted the SICL East champion Keota in a crossover contest.

The Class 1A 10th-ranked Lynnville-Sully boys pushed out to a 15-9 lead in the first quarter and were up 27-13 at halftime. After a 9-9 third quarter, the Hawks pulled away from Keota on a 26-14 surge.

“We were able to build a lead in the first quarter. We didn't allow any of their guys to get into double figures,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Nick Harthoorn said. “We did a good job on the boards and knocked down our free throws when we had the chance.”

Lynnville-Sully knocked down 24-of-37 free throw attempts. The Hawks shot 50 percent, 18-of-36, from the field and had a 37-21 rebounding advantage.

Senior post player Kyle Van Dyke had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks. Junior Tyler Van Zante added 16 points, three steals and four assists. Sophomore Jesse Van Wyk scored 13 points and grabbed one rebounds.

Zach Mousel led Keota with nine points. Keota went 7-of-14 from the line and shot 23.5 percent, 12-of-51, from the field.

Lynnville-Sully (20-1) wait to see which team — HLV or English Valleys — it will play in Class 1A District 10 action Thursday at Sully.

Sigourney boys 83, Colfax-Mingo boys 72

COLFAX — In a battle of third-place finishers in the two South Iowa Cedar League divisions, Sigourney just simply couldn't miss for most of the 32 minutes Friday night.

The Savages came into the SICL cross-over game averaging 56 points per game but nearly reached that total by halftime against Colfax-Mingo.

Jordan Albert got the visitors off to a hot start, and the Savages fought off a late Tigerhawk rally. Albert came into the game averaging 11.5 points per game and shooting 22 percent from 3-point range, but he scored 30 and nailed five treys.

Albert had 18 at the break as Sigourney (10-11) led 46-31 at the break. Colfax-Mingo got to within 12 after three quarters and got as close as eight two different times, but Sigourney closed the game scoring five of the final seven points.

Jared Myers had a season-high 18 points for Colfax-Mingo, while Jacob Lietz scored 17 points, dished out nine assists and pulled down three rebounds.

Jarod Nichols recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Colin Lourens scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds and had four steals. Jonathan Jacobs also scored eight points.

The Tigerhawks buried 10 3-pointers. Myers led the way with four, while Jacobs, Lietz and Nichols all drained a pair each.

Albert wasn't the only player to have a career night for Sigourney. Peyton Crawford came in averaging 8.4 points per game but finished with 15, while Denny Haines scored more than twice his average with 11.

Albert hit five of the Savages' eight 3-pointers. Blaine Gretter scored 19 in the win.

The Savages avenged a loss to Colfax-Mingo earlier this season. The Tigerhawks won by 23 in Sigourney in January. The Savages missed 30 shots in that loss.

Greene County boys 65, PCM boys 62, OT

JEFFERSON — The Mustangs dropped their third straight game and fell to third place in the Heart of Iowa Conference standings Friday night.

Logan Gilman scored 25 points, Luke Greiner put in 16 and Noah Clark tallied 13, but Greene County got the home win in extra time.

PCM had a chance to earn a share of the HOIC title when the week started but a loss to Gilbert on Tuesday and another defeat to the Rams on Friday shoved the Mustangs into third. Gilbert claimed the HOIC title at 13-3, Nevada finished second at 11-5 and PCM was third at 10-6. Greene County, North Polk and South Hamilton all finished 9-7.

On Friday, Greiner nailed a shot with 2 seconds to play to force overtime, but junior Trey Tucker and the Rams got the win. Tucker finished with a game-high 26 points, while Trey Hinote added 10. Tyler Beger, Max Neese and Wade Adcock all had seven in the win.

Greene County ended the regular season with four straight wins.

Gilbert boys 71, CMB boys 46

GILBERT — A poor shooting night doomed the CMB boys on Friday night against HOIC champion Gilbert.

The Tigers, who finished 13-3 in conference play, got 22 points from Adam Baker and Gilbert shot 45 percent from the floor. The hosts led by six after one and then pushed it to 16 after a 20-10 advantage in the second.

A combined 15 points were scored in the third quarter, but Gilbert outscored CMB 26-18 in the fourth.

Brady Stover had 11 points, five rebounds and three steals to lead the Raiders (3-18, 2-14), while Hunter McWhirter had eight points, nine rebounds and three assists. Will Clapper finished with nine points. Hunter Gunderson collected four rebounds and four assists.

The Raiders made 38 percent of their shots and were 4-of-16 from long range. They also made just 9-of-18 from the free throw line.

Gilbert improved to 15-4 overall. The Tigers have won six of their last eight. CMB has now lost 11 of its last 12.