Veteran Hawks hoping third time’s the charm

You can’t put a value on experience. But if you could, the Lynnville-Sully girls basketball team would be one of the richest in all of Iowa high school sports.

The Hawks — led by six seniors — are a couple days away from making their third straight appearance at the Class 1A State Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. It’s become old hat for them.

And if you want to talk state experience, look no further than the man leading the team. This is the ninth different L-S team coach Jerry Hulsing has led to the Well in his 20 years at the helm. His teams brought home gold in 1997, ‘98 and ‘99 and silver in ‘96, meaning he not only knows what it takes to get to the big dance, but how to win there.

While players have come and gone and technology has advanced in that time, the modes of preparation and the distractions that come with the lead-up to the tournament remain the same.

“It’s a great busy,” said Hulsing, who won his 400th career game on Jan. 29. “It’s a lot of work and little things behind the scenes you don’t see. There’s a lot of people that want to talk to you, interview you. Other coaches want to congratulate you. And it’s the same for the kids, with fans telling them congratulations and to keep going. It gets them excited. Having been through it before, we know what to expect and all the little extra stuff that goes with it.”

Fourth-ranked Lynnville-Sully (23-2) will take on fifth-ranked West Sioux (24-1) in the quarterfinals Monday at 1:30 p.m.

After losing in the quarterfinals the past two seasons, the Hawks — especially their seniors — are looking to have a longer stay the third time around.

“We’re excited, but at the same time we want to get a win,” said forward Brianna James, a three-year starter. “That’s our main goal. We know how it is, so we’re hoping to make some noise now.”

Lynnville-Sully entered this season with a bit of uncertainty with having to replace three senior starters — one of whom was a two-time all-state pick in Tara Van Rees. But as he has time and again, Hulsing reloaded. Returning starters James — a second-team all-state pick — and Abby Van Wyk were a solid foundation, with fellow seniors Aimee Rolffs, McKenzi Ritter and Sydney Brand bringing back leadership as well. Add in a few talented sophomores and the major addition of senior Montezuma transfer Brittany Bryan, and the Hawks were contenders once again. They were tabbed 10th in the preseason rankings.

“We knew we had a good nucleus coming back with this senior and sophomore group, but we didn’t know how it would work together,” Hulsing said. “It’s really come together. In some aspects, it may still be a work in progress. But the kids came in from day one and you could see where their offseason work paid off.”

“Looking at the skill and talent we had at the beginning of the season, we thought we’d be pretty good,” added Bryan, the team’s second-leading scorer at 10.5 points per game. “But we’ve worked really hard. It’s gone how we’ve wanted it to, but we didn’t expect anything.”

The Hawks started the season 7-0, and then their 53-50 loss at home to No. 1 North Mahaska proved that they could play with anybody. They won their next 10 games before falling by four at North Mahaska, and now enter Monday’s game on a seven-game winning steak. Only one of their 23 wins have been decided by 10 points or less, with L-S’ average margin of victory at nearly 21 points per game. It won its four playoff games by 27, 27, 15 and 13 points.

While the Hawks’ offense has churned out an efficient 56.5 points per game, the team’s calling card — as it historically always is — is its defense. L-S has given up just 35.7 points a game this season. The highest totals they’ve given up were 53 in the first game against North Mahaska, and 51 to Burlington Notre Dame in the regional final last Monday. Their defense has also shown great discipline as the Hawks have committed only 13 fouls per game.

On the other side of the ball, L-S’ offense has caused all sorts of problems for defenses with it’s balance. At forward, James has been a dominant force in the post, scoring 14.3 ppg and grabbing 7.8 rebounds. Complimenting her at point guard has been Bryan, who’s taken 59 percent of her shots from 3-point range, connecting on 38 of them. She can also slash and score and been a great fast-break finisher. She’s also a 75 percent free throw shooter.

“That’s an amazing combination,” said Van Wyk, the team’s third-leading scorer at 6.6 points a game. “To have a point guard that can score like that and have a post who can dominate inside is truly an unstoppable force.”

After leading the South Iowa Cedar League Conference in scoring at Montezuma last year, Bryan has flourished in the Hawks’ system. Her scoring numbers may be down (from 17 ppg to 10.5), but her rebounding and assist numbers are significantly up from a year ago, while her turnovers numbers have significantly decreased.

“There’s not as much pressure on me to push to score this year because we have other people that can,” she said. “I don’t have the ball in my hand nearly as much because there’s other people who are capable of bringing it up the floor as well, which definitely helps.”

Besides Van Wyk as a third scorer, the Hawks have also gotten great play out of sophomore Lyndsey Terpstra, who averages 6.1 ppg and always seems to making hustle plays whenever she’s on the court. Rolffs checks in at 4.9 ppg and is second in 3-pointers made (24) to Bryan (38).

But L-S’ depth goes deep into its bench. McKenzi Ritter (3.8 ppg) has shown a knack for knocking down 3’s through the playoffs, and fellow senior Sydney Brand (2.2 ppg) also provides plenty of experience. Sophomores Cassie Cullen (3.6 ppg), Rachel Van Wyk (2.8 ppg) and Jade Van Rees (2.4 ppg) have held their own as well.

West Sioux

In West Sioux, the Hawks will meet a team that will want to make it’s 240-mile drive from Hawardan worth the trip. The Falcons average 57.4 ppg, and give up 40.1. They’ve won five games by five points or less, including last Monday’s regional final. Another came on a buzzer-beater.

Like L-S, they are powered by a potent post-guard combination of 6-foot-0 junior Jade Lynn Vlotho and 5-foot-8 senior Dana Weerheim, who average 16.3 and 13.9 ppg, respectively. Containing those two will be a priority for the Hawks.

“We’re going to have to have another great defensive effort,” Hulsing said. “Their point guard handles the ball really well. She gets in there and dishes. If we don’t come over and help, she’ll finish it. If you back off too far, she’ll shoot it. Their post kid — we’ll have to double her and not give her easy buckets.”

“We have a few game plans we’ve been working on with how to defend them. We’re working on shutting them down,” Rolffs added. “If we can get them flustered, it will work to our advantage.”

Besides those two, West Sioux shows balanced scoring with its other three starters — senior Brooke McManaman (5-foot-8, 7.4 ppg), junior Carissa Anderson (5-foot-5, 7.2 ppg) and senior Shannon Kots (6-foot-0, 6.2 ppg).

Outlook

If Lynnville-Sully gets past the Falcons, they’ll likely see fellow SICL rival and top-ranked North Mahaska in the semifinals on Wednesday. The Warhawks (25-0) dealt the Hawks their only two losses of the season.

The Hawks have plenty of state experience. The one thing they have yet to experience is a state victory.

“It’s always a goal to want to get there and do something,” Hulsing said. “A lot of these kids saw minutes on the floor there last year. Hopefully we can just play our game right from the tipoff.”