Lynnville-Sully boys battle BGM to end, lose in 1A district play

KEOTA — Lynnville-Sully’s Hawk boys scrambled and scrapped to the end on Thursday night.

The Hawks opened Class 1A District 9 play against fellow South Iowa Cedar League’s BGM Bears in a district doubleheader at Keota.

Unfortunately, the Hawks came out on the short end of a 58-52 score as the Bears win and advance in the district tournament.

The Bears (17-5) will play Keota, which beat English Valleys 85-44 in the second game Thursday.

The 1A District 9 semifinals will be all SICL teams and hosted at Montezuma on Tuesday. BGM plays Keota then North Mahaska takes on top-seeded Montezuma.

“We did a lot of the things we needed to in order to give ourselves a shot. Unfortunately, we struggled to make shots in the first half,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Nick Hawthorn said. “For six of our guys, it was their last basketball game wearing the columbia blue & gold. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with each one of them.”

BGM held a 6-5 lead after the first quarter and outscored Lynnville-Sully 15-9 in the second period.

Coming out down 21-14 at halftime, the Hawks had a 17-13 scoring edge to close the gap to three points, 34-31.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears had just enough to stave off the Hawks’ charge.

They outscored the Hawks 24-21.

BGM went 11-of-19 at the free throw line while Lynnville-Sully struggled, hitting 6-of-16 at the line.

The Hawks shot just 31 percent, 19-of-61, from the field. The Bears were 34 percent, 20-of 59, shooting from the field.

Another factor was rebounding as the Bears had a 50-39 edge on the boards.

Lynnville-Sully had seven turnovers to BGM’s 13.

Senior Blaize Kuhlmann drilled three of the team’s 8 3-pointers as he finished with 12 points.

Also scoring 12 points was sophomore Mason Rodibaugh, who hit 2 3-pointers. Freshman Connor Maston had 11 points.

Senior Bray Noun Harder added seven points and dished out four assists. Kinnick McFarland, a senior, had five points and senior Zane Fraker had two points.

Freshman Preston Rodibaugh had three points.

Fraker pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and Kuhlmann had seven rebounds. Noun Harder had five rebounds. Maston had three assists.

Noah Beck paced the Bears with 16 points. Mitchell White hit four 3-pointers on his way to 15 points.

Jordan Kriegel added 12 points.

Lynnville-Sully finished at 5-16 for the season.

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