March 18, 2024

Cardinals claim season-finale win

ADEL — Nailing down a 76-50 victory on the road in their final regular-season game, Newton High’s Cardinal boys recorded the best record in school’s history since 1985. The win over host Adel-DeSoto-Minburn’s Tigers put the Cardinals’ 2016-17 mark at 16-5.

Newton has won nine of its final 10 games as the Cardinals gather steam going into the Class 4A playoffs. The last time a Cardinal team had 16 wins was under head coach Roger Slykhuis in 1985.

“We’re playing really good basketball right now,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “This was a solid team win for us. It was a game to keep us sharp for the playoffs, and we passed that test tonight.”

Cardinal all-time leading scorer senior Connor Gholson had a career-high 34 points to lead Newton to victory over ADM. Gholson connected for five 3-pointers in the game.

The Cardinals got off to a nice start in Thursday’s game against ADM, according to Liley. He said they shot the ball really well — 28-of-55 overall for 51 percent from the field.

Newton was up 14-10 after the first quarter. The Cardinal lead was extended to 34-21 by halftime. Newton outscored ADM, 19-17, in the third period then finished on a 23-12 run in the final eight minutes.

“Connor is on a tear right now. He is showing great senior leadership,” Liley said. “Our guys are sharing the ball so well. We’re playing solid defense and rebounding the ball. We’re doing the things we need to do to win games.”

Junior Garrett Sturtz was 9-of-9 at the free-throw line for Newton as he scored 19 points. Senior Trey Vanderlaan ended up with 13 points, hitting three 3-pointers. The Cardinals were 9-of-20 from beyond the 3-point arc and went 11-of-13 at the line.

Gholson pulled down six rebounds and had two steals. Senior Morgan Maher handed out five of the team’s 16 assists. Sturtz and Vanderlaan each had two steals.

Defensively, Newton held ADM to 40 percent, 17-of-42, from the field. The Tigers had six 3-pointers in the contest. They were 10-of-11 from the free-throw line.

Tajen Ross, who hit four treys, finished with 20 points for ADM. Payton Conrad added 10 points.

Liley said the Cardinals will have three more good practices to obtain a greater understanding to the problems Urbandale presents to opponents. Newton hosts Urbandale at 7 p.m. Monday in a Class 4A Substate 7 quarterfinal.

“We’ll have those problems solved and be ready to make a run in the playoffs,” Liley said.

In the junior varsity game, ADM beat newton, 72-39. Kyle Long fired in five 3-pointers on his way to 19 points for Newton, and he had two steals. Aaron Bartels scored nine points, had six rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Newton 14-20-19-23—76

ADM 10-11-17-12—50

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 5-9-3-19, Graham 0-0-2-0, Long 0/1-0-0-3, Gholson 9/5-1-0-34, Vanderlaan 2/3-0-1-13, Ventling 0-0-4-0, Maher 1-1-1-3, Coley 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 19/9-11-13-76.

ADM (FG/3-pt): Conrad 5-0-1-10, Larson 2-4-2-8, Ross 2/4-4-1-20, Sapp 0/2-0-0-6, McCartney 0-0-4-0, Knoll 0-0-4-0, Hews 1-0-0-2, Gavin 0-0-1-0, Nordman 1-0-1-2, Hardcastle 0-2-2-2. TOTALS: 11/6-10-16-50.

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