Cardinal boys dispatch Indians

Five straight victories have Newton High’s Cardinal boys making a statement as the regular season winds down toward the Class 4A playoffs.

The Cardinals dispatched Oskaloosa’s Indians in a dominate performance Tuesday in front of a home crowd. Newton posted a 67-36 victory in Little Hawkeye Conference play to run its overall mark to 12-4.

Newton is 7-4 in LHC action in a three-way tie with Dallas Center-Grimes and Pella Christian for second in the conference. They earned their third conference series sweep this season.

Up next for the surging Cardinals is a rematch with Class 3A second-ranked Pella at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Pella. The Little Dutch (16-1, 10-1) escaped the NHS gym earlier with an 84-83 overtime win against the Cardinals.

“We played this game at a playoff game pace. Our kids understand every possession counts, you have to make stops and you havee to run a great half-court offense. That is what playoff basketball turns into when it’s loser-out,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said.

He said the Cardinals understand how to do that at a high level, and it showed in their performance Tuesday night.

“Now, Friday night it will be a whole different deal. That game will be played at break-neck speed, but that’s the beauty of our team. We can play both styles effectively,” Liley said.

Newton’s top scorers — senior guard Connor Gholson and Garrett Sturtz — put the Cardinals on the right track early scoring the first eight points — four apiece — of the game. The Indians answered with a six-point run ending on a 3-pointer by Rian Yates.

Gholson, who finished 26 points in the game to increase his NHS career-scoring mark to 1,217, nailed a trey of his own. He had four 3-pointers on the night. Josh Ventling had a layup just before the first-quarter buzzer to give Newton a 13-6 lead.

Oskaloosa stayed within striking distance early in the second quarter. At the 4:38 mark, Gholson had a basket followed by a three-point play by Morgan Maher. A field goal from Gholson pushed Newton’s lead to 24-13.

Back-to-back baskets from Jarad Kruse trimmed the Cardinal lead down to 10 points, 29-19, with 1:30 left in the first half. Trey Vanderlaan drilled 3-pointer and Ventling scored. Oskaloosa’s Jack Moore and Maher traded free throws in the final 43 seconds.

Newton led 35-20 at halftime.

“We did a good job of boxing out and playing solid team defense,” Maher said. “We did what the coach wanted us to and executed.”

Oskaloosa has five players between 6-foot-4 inches to 6-foot-10 inches. Cole Henry is 6-foot-8 inches and freshman Xavier Foster, who comes off the bench, is 6-foot-10 inches.

The Cardinals outrebounded the taller Indians, 24-19, led by Sturtz with seven defensive rebounds. Gholson had five rebounds and Vanderlaan had four rebounds. Newton allowed Oskaloosa two offensive rebounds in the game.

“A big factor tonight was the fact we played great defense and rebounded the ball. When we do that and shoot at a high percentage (49 percent), it is hard for teams to beat us,” Liley said. “Our guys had great focus on the defensive end. We were able to hold a much bigger basketball team to one contested shot.”

Newton steadily pulled away from Oskaloosa in the second half. The Cardinals had 6-0 run in the middle of the third quarter to gain 46-25 lead. Going into the fourth period, Newton was up 51-29 then rattled off the first five points of the final eight minutes.

“We’re just getting better each game. We’re working to continue and hope it will take us through the playoffs,” Maher said.

Sturtz had 19 points and three assists. Maher handed out five of the team’s 17 assists. Ventling had four assists.

Newton was 23-of-47 from the field and sank 16-of-19 free throw attempts. Oskaloosa shot 31 percent, 14-of-45, from the floor and went 6-of-12 from the line.

Henry and Kruse each had 11 points for the Indians.

The Newton junior varsity lost to Oskaloosa, 54-48. Kyle Long and Matt Moran each scored 12 points for Newton.

Grant Garvis and Cody Satterfield had 10 points apiece. Garvis had four rebounds and two assists. McKenna Davis had four rebounds and two steals while Aaron Bartels pulled down five rebounds.

In the freshman game, Oskaloosa beat Newton, 54-22. Blake Sevenbergen had five points followed by William Cheng, Josh Dunsbergen and Kaleb Dydell with four points apiece.

Oskaloosa 6-14-9-7—36

Newton 13-22-16-16—67

Oskaloosa (FG/3-pt): Yates 0/2-0-0-6, Nunnikhoven 0-0-5-0, Moore 1-4-5-6, Dekock 0-0-2-0, Foster 1-0-3-2, Henry 5-1-2-11, Kruse 5-1-2-11. TOTALS: 12/2-6-19-36.

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 7-5-3-19, Gholson 4/4-6-1-26, Vanderlaan 2/1-0-0-7, Ventling 3-1-4-7, Maher 2-4-3-8. TOTALS: 18.5-16-11-67.

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