Cardinals knock off 3A No. 8 DCG

Josh Ventling was ready to catch and shoot when Trey Vanderlaan made a steal at the other end of the court Tuesday night. Vanderlaan made the long pass to Ventling, who buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 40-all with 46.3 seconds left in regulation.

Newton High’s Cardinals had survived a seven-minute scoring drought against visiting Dallas Center-Grimes, the No. 8 ranked team in Class 3A. The Mustangs held the ball for a final shot in regulation, but when Steve Borneman drove to the basket, Newton’s Garrett Sturtz blocked his shot.

The Cardinals had the rebound and 2.3 seconds on the clock. There was no buzzer-beater. The two Little Hawkeye Conference foes went into overtime.

The Cardinals owned the four-minute extra period, 13-1, for a 53-41 victory. It was a game where defense was stingy by both teams. Newton held DCG below its 60-point per game average and the Mustangs held the Cardinals below their 66-point per game average.

“Trey made a great pass to me and I knew I had to shoot it for us to win. We practice on this all the time — stepping up and hitting big shots. If people are going to guard us, we have to shoot the ball,” Ventling said.

Ventling drained a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left in the third quarter to put Newton up 34-31, but Jordan Humphreys answered for the Mustangs with his own trey to send the teams to the fourth quarter tied 34-all.

“During the fourth quarter when we weren’t scoring, we knew we had to stick with it at the defensive end,” Ventling said. “If we kept giving up points, we weren’t going to allow ourselves back in the game. We got some stops, hit big shots and got it to overtime. We took it to the next level from there.”

Ventling opened the overtime period with a steal. Connor Gholson, who led all scorers with 21 points in the game, connected to put Newton on its path to victory. Morgan Maher, who had a six-point run in the second period for Newton, sank a free throw to give the Cardinals a 43-40 lead with 1:19 left.

Ventling had back-to-back baskets and downed two free throws to push the Cardinal lead to 49-41 with 27.6 seconds remaining. Sturtz and Gholson each added a pair of free throws at the end. The only point scored by the Mustangs in the overtime was a free throw by Humphreys.

“This was the best defensive game we’ve played as a team since I’ve been here,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “To hold DCG to 41 points is a credit to how hard our kids play on defense. DCG is a very talented team which can beat you in so many ways offensively. I’m excited for my basketball team in winning this game, which was a grinder.”

Liley pointed to the performances of Ventling and Maher as key for Newton as the Mustangs chose not to guard those two Newton players. He said Ventling and Maher combined for 24 points in the game, so teams will have to think twice about not guarding those two Newton players in future games.

“This is a huge game at home for us because it came on the Tuesday before the Friday when the playoff pools come out,” Liley said. “They (the state) has to see that the Little Hawkeye Conference is as good of a conference as there is in the state. Our conference teams can compete with anyone.”

Newton shot 41 percent, 16-of-39, from the field while DCG went 15-of-44 for 34 percent. The Cardinals cashed in 16-of-19 foul shots and the Mustangs hit 7-of-10. DCG did hold a 31-20 rebounding edge.

Newton fell behind early again, 10-3, then Maher and Gholson got the Cardinals even at 10-all. Sturtz had a conventional 3-point play with 1:22 left to give Newton its first lead of the game, 13-12. Vanderlaan buried a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to put the Cardinals up 16-14.

Brody Kleen’s opening bucket to the second quarter got DCG even with Newton, 16-16, Maher had three straight baskets and Gholson, who was 9-of-10 from the line, hit four free throws to give Newton a 26-18 lead with 2:36 on the clock.

Newton took a 27-21 lead into halftime, but DCG reeled off six unanswered points to tie it in the first two minutes of the third quarter. Ventling and Gholson had baskets as Newton pushed back in front, 31-27. Then it was tied 34-34 going into the fourth quarter and the Mustangs led 40-34 with 1:14 left.

Gholson was fouled on a 3-point field goal attempt, and he sank all three foul shots. Vanderlaan had the steal leading the Ventling’s tying 3-pointer.

“Winning here at home tonight is huge and gives us the right mindset in this final stretch of the regular season. We know every game matters for the playoff seedings. We have to protect our home court and we did that tonight,” Ventling said.

Ventling finished with 14 points, three assists and one steal. Maher had nine points, nine rebounds, two steals and four assists. Vanderlaan had three assists and one big steal. Sturtz made three blocked shots.

Humphreys led the Mustangs with 10 points, Borneman and Trevor Grove each had nine points.

Newton improved to 5-4 in LHC play and 9-4 overall. The Cardinals play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Grinnell in conference play.

DCG won the junior varsity game, 58-39. Lyle Long had 13 points and three assists. Grant Garvis had seven rebounds. The freshman game had DCG winning 40-38. William Cheng had 17 points and Cody Hamilton had seven points for Newton.

DCG 14-7-13-6-1—41

Newton 16-11-7-6-13—53

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 1-3-4-5, Gholson 3/2-9-0-21, Vanderlaan 0/1-0-4-3, Ventling 3/2-3-3-15, Maher 4-1-4-9, Coley 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 11/5-16-17-53.

DCG (FG/3-pt): Duey 1-0-02, Grove 3/1-0-5-9, Borneman 3-3-0-9, Humphreys 0/3-1-2-10, Cooney 0-0-3-0, Epple 1-2-4-4, Kleen 2-1-5-5, Protzman 1-0-0-2, Clapper 0-0-1-0, Pride 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 11/4-7-21-41.

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