Cardinal boys’ late rally falls short

A little glimpse of what is coming down the pike for the Newton High boys’ basketball team this season was on display in the three of the four quarters Friday night.

The Cardinals showed what first-year head coach Kyle Peta is doing with the program during a second-half rally against visiting Grinnell.

“We knew we’d have learning bumps. We’re getting through them the best we can right now. We haven’t had the results we want, but we saw progress in that second half tonight,” Peta said after a 66-53 loss.

After trailing by 20 points at halftime, the Cardinals worked their way back to within 10 points, 56-46, with 4:36 remaining in Friday’s home Little Hawkeye Conference game.

Coming off a very disappointing game a home on Thursday night, falling to Marshalltown, the Cardinal boys had a 5-0 lead on the Tigers. Grinnell took a timeout and was led to an 8-5 lead by junior Jacob Hull, who fired in 37 points for the game.

“We came out strong, and I was very pleased the way we played in the first quarter,” Peta said. “We executed the offense, and it was a good game.”

Peta said the Cardinals were aware that Hull was a good player but weren’t able to take his offense away from the Tigers. He said his team needs to be better at finding an opponent’s biggest threat and limiting that player or players.

Three-pointers by Logan Schilling and Adam Mattes had Newton up 13-12 with 45 seconds left in the opening period. Grinnell’s Owen Coffman sank two free throws to lift his team to a 14-13 advantage.

“Then in the second quarter — what was it 21-2 — we fell back into that one drill and a shot or one pass and a shot,” Peta said. “We got in a big hole again. The guys came out and competed hard in the second half, cutting it to 10, but we couldn’t get over the hump.”

Newton trailed Grinnell 35-15 at the break.

Newton went inside to 6-foot-6 inch junior Quintrail Coley, who had nine of his team-high 12 points in the second half. Coley poured in seven of those points in the first three minutes of the third quarter.

“Quintrail had some really good spurts for us tonight. I think we could have gone to him more,” Peta said. “We need to play inside-out, getting Quintrail going early, which will open up the rest of our offense — the cuts and the shooters from outside.”

The Cardinal defense couldn’t make stops and the teams were trading baskets. It was 45-24 when Noah Allen scored for Newton then Kyle Long drilled two 3-pointers and Schilling’s trey with 1:22 left made it 49-35.

Newton faced a 50-35 deficit as the fourth quarter began. The Cardinals mounted an 11-4 run with baskets by Coley and Mattes followed by two free throws and a field goal by Kaleb Dydell.

Long’s third 3-pointer of the night made it 56-46 at the 4:36 mark. The Tigers didn’t allow the Cardinals to get any closer.

“We’re still learning and it’s still early. We knew going into the season, we’d take our lumps as we learn to play in the new system and as a team,” Peta said. “We got better tonight and we’ll continue to work hard to improve.”

Long finished with 11 points. McKenna Davis dished out seven of the team’s 14 assists. Coley recorded a double-double by adding 11 rebounds to his 12 points.

Newton hit seven 3-pointers in the game, but went 3-of-14 at the free-throw line. Newton shot 36 percent, 20-of-55, from the field.

Grinnell was 27-of-51 overall from the field for 53 percent. The Tigers were 11-of-17 at the line. They held a 40-27 rebounding edge.

Newton lost the junior varsity game but won the freshman game on Friday night.

The Cardinals (0-4, 0-2) are idle until Friday when they are at Oskaloosa in LHC action. The boys’ varsity game tips off at 7:30 p.m.

Grinnell 14-21-15-16—66

Newton 13-2-20-18—53

Newton (FG/3-pt): Davis 0-0-3-0, Long 1/3-0-2-11, Satterfield 0-0-4-0, Allen 2/1-0-0-7, Mattes 3/1-0-3-9, Dydell 1-3-3-5, Schilling 1/2-0-1-8, Coley 5-2-3-12, Arguello 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 13/7-6-19-53.

Grinnell (FG/3-pt): McGriff 2-2-1-6, Gibson 2-0-1-4, Ivanov 2-0-1-4, Wilkins 1/1-0-3-5, Hull 16-5-1-37, Snook 1-0-3-2, Durr 1-0-3-2, Coffman 1-4-3-6. TOTALS: 16/1-11-16-66.

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