Cardinal boys drop LHC finale to Eagles

Scoring eight unanswered points in the final two minutes of the first half had Newton High’s boys in charge of a 39-28 lead against the visiting Class 2A fourth-ranked Pella Christian Eagles.

Second place in the Little Hawkeye Conference was on the line along with a seven-game winning streak for the Cardinals when the two teams squared off Thursday.

“In the first half, we looked like the ball team we’ve been the last seven games. We hit a wall in the second half,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said after the Eagles snared a 68-62 win over the Cardinals on Senior Night.

“It happens. We looked a little tired tonight. We’ve played really well to this point and to have it catch up to us on Senior Night is unfortunately for our kids.”

Seniors Josh Ventling, Connor Gholson, Trey Vanderlaan and Morgan Maher and their parents were recognized before the game.

It was a game of two halves for the Newton offense. The Cardinals turned a 17-15 first-quarter deficit into an 11-point halftime lead by outscoring the Eagles 24-11.

Newton shot 29 percent from the field in the second half. The Cardinals had just three field goals and five 3-pointers in the second half from the field.

They fought off an early third-quarter run by the Eagles when David Kacmarynski scored five straight points. Graham Howerzyl hit a 3-pointer for Pella Christian which was answered by a trey from Ventling.

Sturtz nailed a 3-pointer with 2:17 left to put Newton up 49-41. Freshman Quintrail Coley had a basket to make it 51-43. A three-point play by the Eagles’ Levi Jungling ended the third quarter to close the gap to five points.

Pella Christian tied the game at 51-51 on a basket by Scott Haveman and a trey by Jungling by the 6:22 mark of the fourth quarter. Vanderlaan’s three put the lead back in the Cardinals’ hands.

The Eagles went on a 10-point run to claim the lead, 61-54, for good with 1:04 left in the game. After Sturtz scored for Newton, the Cardinals began putting the Eagles on the free-throw line. The Eagles hit 7-of-10, including two on technical fouls against Newton with 3.5 seconds in the game.

“We got it out of the way now. We have two more games remaining in the regular season. We’ll rebuild and get the momentum going our way again for the playoffs,” Liley said.

Pella Christian’s Kenden Veenstra had the opening basket of the game. The Cardinals had things working at both ends of the court with Sturtz scoring, making a steal and a cross-the-lane pass to Gholson for the go-ahead basket.

Maher stole the ball again from the Eagles. Ventling had a three-point play which put Newton up 7-2. The Cardinals led 13-7 when the Eagles rolled back into the game on back-to-back buckets by Kacmarynski. Downing two 3-pointers in the final minute, Pella Christian took a 17-15 lead.

The Eagles were up 23-21 when the Cardinals rode a wave back to the lead. Gholson and Vanderlaan had baskets and Vanderlaan followed with a 3-pointer to go up 28-23.

Vanderlaan and Jungling traded treys. Gholson hit two free throws and had two baskets with a bucket by Coley in between to end the second quarter with the 39-28 advantage.

“This is a group learning so many things. Learning to sustain greatness is part of tying to be great,” Liley said. “We’re a work in progress, but the work looks better now than it did 14 months ago.”

Newton shot 37 percent, 22-of-59, from the field for the game. Pella Christian, which shot 60 percent in the second half, finished at 57 percent (24-of-42) for the contest. The Eagles cashed in on 15-of-23 free throw attempts while the Cardinals were 7-of-8.

Gholson scored 18 points and had six rebounds for Newton. Sturtz had 15 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Vanderlaan tossed in 14 points, hitting four 3-pointers, and pulled down six rebounds. Ventling had 11 points, dished out four assists and grabbed six rebounds.

Pella Christian was led by Kacmarynski with 20 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Jungling had 18 points.

The Eagles (17-4) finished LHC play at 10-4 for second and the Cardinals were 9-5 in third place.

Newton (15-4) plays on the road twice next week, going to Winterset on Monday and ADM on Thursday. The Cardinals open Class 4A Substate 7 play on Feb 20. The 4A brackets will be officially released Friday.

Pella Christian won the junior varsity game, 54-42. Newton was down 43-19 and got back in the game on a 16-0 run. Grant Garvis scored 16 points and had two assists for Newton. Kyle Long had 12 points and four steals, and Aaron Bartels pulled down 10 rebounds.

In the freshman game, the Eagles claimed a 53-35 victory over the Cardinals. Cody Hamilton and Dalton Altemeier had nine points each.

Pella Christian 17-11-18-22—68

Newton 15-24-12-11—62

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 2/3-2-4-15, Graham 0-0-1-0, Gholson 4/2-4-1-18, Vanderlaan 1/4-0-1-14, Ventling 2/2-1-5-11, Maher 0-0-4-0, Coley 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 11/11-7-18-62.

Pella Christian (FG/3-pt); Howerzyl 0/1-2-4-5, Jungling 1/3-7-2-18, Flagel 3-0-1-6, Haveman 2/1-1-0-8, Vander Molen 0-0-1-0, Pringle 1-0-2-2, Kacmarynski 8-4-0-20, Veenstra 4-1-4-9. TOTALS: 19/5-15-14-68.

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