Cardinals slay Dragons for 4A substate title, on to state

DES MOINES — Newton High’s Cardinals were not going to be denied in 2017. They came close — losing by two a year ago in a Class 3A substate final.

“It’s been a heck of a ride,” senior Trey Vanderlaan said as the celebration washed over him and his Newton High teammates following a 48-44 win over Johnston’s Dragons Tuesday.

The Cardinals claimed the “banner’ as a 2017 Iowa Class 4A State Boys’ Basketball Tournament qualifier. It is the first time in 25 years a Newton team will be back in state tournament play.

Newton finds out Wednesday afternoon which team it will play in the first round.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association announced the boys’ state tournament pairings for all four classes at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The IHSSN will live stream a state tournament pairings show at IHSSN.com

“We wanted to do it for this community,” senior Josh Ventling said. “It’s an amazing feeling. We knew we had to stick with it when they made a run at us. We made some clutch plays down the stretch, a got a win and are going to the 4A state tournament.”

Newton’s community followed the Cardinals to Des Moines Roosevelt High School Tuesday for the Class 4A Substate 7 championship game. With the NHS student section in full throat from the first time the Cardinal team appeared on the court for pregame warmup to celebrating with the team at center court with the banner.

“This was outstanding tonight. We came out of the locker room the first time and our crowd roared. I looked over at our student section and all the other fans, and knew we had the advantage,” Ventling said.

The Cardinals broke out against Johnston — the third straight CIML team they faced in substate play — for a 14-2 lead by the 2:14 mark of the first quarter. Senior Connor Gholson sank two free throws to set the whole thing in motion for Newton.

Newton, which is one of the top 3-point field goal shooting teams in the state, only had two in Tuesday’s game. They both came in the first quarter — one by Vanderlaan and one by Gholson. Senior Morgan Maher stole the ball on the end line and scored followed by a bucket by junior Garrett Sturtz.

Sturtz, who had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, downed two free throws to make it 14-2. Johnston had a basket and a free throw to make it 14-5 by the close of the period.

The Cardinals stretched their lead to 20-5 with 6:18 left in the second quarter on baskets by Gholson, Maher and Sturtz. The Dragons closed to within 10 points, 22-12, by the 2:28 mark.

“We wanted to win — that was our mentality tonight,” Vanderlaan said. “I remember looking up last year and it was 52-50 and we had come so close. That pushed us this year. We’ve dreamed of going to state and it’s hard to put in words what I’m feeling right now.”

After leading 26-14 at halftime, the Cardinals had to withstand a run or two by the Dragons in the second half. Ventling got the first basket of the second half at the 6:07 mark.

The Dragons would outscore the Cardinals 15-4 in the third quarter. Camdem Vander Zwaag hit a 3-pointer at the 4:05 mark followed by back-to-back baskets by Peyton Williams.

Johnston had whittled the Newton lead down to four, 28-24. Gholson scored a basket with 48 seconds left to end a more than five-minute scoring drought by the Cardinals.

Vander Zwaag drained another trey and Jeran Procter scored just before the buzzer to draw the Dragons to within one, 30-29, heading to the fourth quarter.

“We knew they would come back on us. I’m proud how our guys harnessed all the emotion and got off to a quick start tonight,” Newton head coach Bill Liley said. “We had Johnston back on their heels early then they made the run in the second half.”

Jaden Kephart handed Johnston its first lead, 32-30, of the game on a 3-pointer to open the final eight minutes of play. Maher led a 6-0 run for the Cardinals to get back in front.

Back came the Dragons getting five points to go up 37-36 with 4:45 to play. Following a timeout. Sturtz drove to the basket for two points and Newton never trailed again. Maher’s bucket with 3:52 left put them up 40-37.

Newton went with its delay game forcing Johnston to chase and foul the Cardinals. A big basket came with a little more than two minutes remaining in the game as Gholson got a back-door cut and scored.

“The whole year we felt we were good enough to beat anybody in the state. We put in the hard work and kept believing in each other,” Gholson said. “We knew tonight we had to work hard and run the plays like we’ve run them a hundred times. We had confidence in our abilities as a team.”

Up 42-39, Newton failed on two one-and-one opportunities at the free-throw line.

“We played defense then came down and hit clutch free throws in the final 30-plus seconds,” Liley said.

Ventling knocked down both ends of a one-and-one which were counted by a basket by Procter for Johnston. Sturtz sank two foul shots then Ventling blocked a Dragon shot and the ball went out of bounds off Johnston.

With 12 seconds on the clock, Sturtz drained two more foul shots to put Newton up 48-41. Everybody was seeing red as the Newton crowd knew the Cardinals were going to the 4A state tournament for the first time since 1992.

Newton shot 39 percent, 18-of-46, from the field and sealed the deal by going 10-of-13 at the free-throw line. Gholson finished with 13 points and three rebounds.

Maher scored 10 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists. Sturtz, Ventling and Maher each had two steals.

Johnston (18-6) was led by Williams with 10 points and Vander Swaag with nine points. The Dragons shot 31 percent from the field in the first half, but finished a 41 percent (17-of-41) overall. They hit five 3-pointers and were 5-of-11 at the line.

“These kids have played together since fourth grade. They’ve dreamed about having an opportunity to play together in Newton uniforms at Wells Fargo Arena in the state tournament. They weren’t ready to let go of that tonight, and they are going to get their opportunity to play at the state tournament.”

The Class 4A first-round games are on March 8. The other 4A teams in the state tournament are top-ranked Iowa City West, No. 4 Sioux City East, No. 5 and defending 4A champion Valley, No. 6 Dubuque Hempstead, No. 9 Bettendorf, Des Moines North and Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

Newton, which is making its ninth trip to state, is one of four teams qualified for the state tournament out of the Little Hawkeye Conference — Pella Christian in 2A and Pella and Dallas Center-Grimes in 3A. Oskaloosa and Grinnell lost in 3A substate finals.

Johnston 5-9-15-15—44

Newton 14-12-5-18—48

Newton (FG/3-pt): Sturtz 4-6-1-14, Graham 0-0-1-0, Gholson 4/1-2-1-13, Vanderlaan 1/1-2-4-7, Ventling 2-0-3-4, Maher 5-0-2-10. TOTALS: 16/2-10-12-48.

Johnston (FG/3-pt): Kephart 1/2-0-3-8, Proctor 3-2-4-8, Bergstrom 0-0-1-0, Vander Zwaag 0/3-0-2-9, Jones 1-0-1-2, Kramer 2-1-3-5, Williams 4-2-3-10, Meyer 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 12/5-5-17-44.