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The Newton boys basketball team bounced back from Tuesday’s 40-point loss to Pella very well Friday.
But this loss may have hurt more.
The Cardinals rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit and held a late lead before a 3-pointer by Cole Tokle with five seconds to play in the game crushed the Cardinals at home, 43-42.
“I am proud of the kids for coming back,” Newton coach Tom Vanderlaan said. “I don’t like either loss, but at least you know you were there. That you had a chance. And we had it. It was right there.”
The Cardinals were there. They did have a chance.
However, poor free throw shooting is to blame. Newton (0-2, 0-2) was 0-for-9 from the charity stripe in the first half and finished 7-for-20 in the game.
With a two-point lead and the ball, senior Ryan Van Manen, who finished with a game-high 15 points, missed two free throws with 17 seconds to play.
That allowed a Grinnell 3 to win the game, and Tokle delivered the dagger.
“You just have to relax and knock them down,” Vanderlaan said of the free throws. “The problem was once the first couple fell off, the team starts to think about it too much. Then they don’t expect to make them.”
Newton had a chance to win the game late. An inbounds pass with 3.5 seconds to play was taken at midcourt by Spencer Osborn and then a wide-open Colten McDermott missed a 3 from the corner as time expired. It was a designed play the team runs in practice but was altered because the officials put the ball in play before the Cardinals had broken their huddle.
“It’s a play we run in practice for this situation, and we almost ran it right,” Vanderlaan said. “It didn’t help that the refs slammed the ball down while we were in the huddle. We got a good look though. It just didn’t go in.”
And now the Cardinals are 0-2 in the early stages of the season. They have a week off before hosting Knoxville on Friday.
The Cardinals trailed by six after one quarter and then went into the locker room at halftime down 25-16. They missed all nine of their free throws in the first half.
However, a 13-0 run to start the third quarter not only got Newton back in the game, but it also gave the Cardinals a four-point lead. Grinnell scored the final four points of the quarter to tie the game heading into the final frame.
“We hadn’t really run any kind of offense in the first half,” Vanderlaan said. “And we gambled way to much on defense. They didn’t really shoot that well when we played straight up and fundamentally sound.”
Hugen did not score in the first half but got going in the second half. All 10 of his point came in the final 16 minutes, while Van Manen scored 11 of his 15 in the final two quarters.
Van Manen scored the first two Newton buckets in the fourth frame to put the Cardinals up one. A Hugen layup off his own steal cut the Grinnell lead to two later in the frame, and two free throws by Van Manen inched the Cardinals closer with 2:04 to play.
“We wanted Ryan to touch it inside a lot because we didn’t feel like they had anyone who could guard him,” Vanderlaan said.
A Hugen bank and two McDermott free throws gave Newton a three-point lead with 30 seconds to play, and Grinnell hit 1-of-2 from the line with 18 seconds left.
“The way Devin played in the second half is how he should play all the time,” Vanderlaan said. “He’s capable of doing that.”
Van Manen added nine rebounds to go along with his 15 points. Hugen had 10 points, five boards and three steals, while McDermott had four points but also pulled down four boards, dished out four assists and had five steals.
Blake Scurr led the Tigers with 13 points, while Tokle finished with nine. Darrin Chitwood, Grinnell’s best player, was held to just five points.
“If you would have told me that Chitwood would only have scored five tonight, I would have liked our chances,” Vanderlaan.
Notes: Newton had 22 turnovers. ... Grinnell was 9-for-15 from the foul line. ... Van Manen scored the first points of the first, second and third quarters and scored Newton’s first four points of the fourth quarter. ... Grant McDermott made three 3-pointers and finished with nine points, while Josh Bates had six rebounds, three steals and four points before fouling out. ... Grinnell scored just six buckets from the floor in the second half. ... Van Manen injured his ankle on the final play of the game. His status for the rest of the season was unknown at press time.
Grinnell 43, Newton 42
Score by quarters
GHS 13 12 4 14 — 43
NHS 7 9 13 13 — 42
Individual statistics
Points — Ryan Van Manen 15, Devin Hugen 10, Grant McDermott 9, Colten McDermott 4, Josh Bates 4. Rebounds — 30 (Van Manen 9, Bates 6). Assists — 9 (Colten McDermott 4). Steals — 15 (Colten McDermott 5). Blocks — 3 (Spencer Osborn 1, Hugen 1, Van Manen 1).