Tigers hold off Cardinals

Three 3-pointers opened the Newton High boys’ regular-season finale on Thursday. But the first two were hit by the visiting Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Tigers.

The Tigers hit shots early and had lead of 10 points and 14 points in the first half. The Cardinals weren’t hitting shot early and when they did in the second half they were able to cut the Tigers’ advantage to three points after three quarters.

A 3-pointer by Cardinal sophomore Noah Allen closed the gap to two points, 45-43, with 7:08 remaining to play. That was a close as the home team got.

“We turned the ball over way too many times. You can’t turned the ball over like that and win basketball games,” Newton head coach Jason Carter said after the Cardinals dropped a 68-52 decision to ADM.

“That’s the bottom line. We gave them way too many extra opportunities. We gave them extra possession because we kept throwing them the ball.”

Carter said the Cardinals have been pretty good about taking care of the ball throughout the season. He said the past couple of games turnovers have been a big factor and they have to get that corrected before Class 3A substate play begins Monday.

After ADM had back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game, Newton senior Kyle Long triggered in a trey and sophomore Adam Mattes scored to make it 6-5. Mattes and ADM’s Nate Conrad traded baskets but Nate Mueller got a quick score to push the Tigers to a 12-7 lead.

Jason Millsap, who had three of the Tigers’ seven 3-pointers, connected from long range followed by Mueller ringing up a trey. The Tigers closed the first period on a 9-2 run as Newton freshman Jake Ingle scored with 33 seconds left to make it 21-11.

Dylan Anderson got into the lane for back-to-back baskets to bump the Tiger lead to 25-11. Long and Millsap exchanged 3-pointers.

Quintrail Coley came off the bench to score for the Cardinals and Mattes fired in a trey to pull Newton to within nine, 28-19. Tate Stine-Smith responded with a trey for the Tigers.

Long and sophomore Zay Arguello tossed in four straight free throws. Newton was 8-for-8 at the free-throw line for the game and it was 31-23. As time ran down in the first half, the Cardinals trailed 35-23 but beating the buzzer was a 3-pointer was Allen.

The Cardinals went into the break down nine, 35-26, and a little momentum.

Coming out in the third quarter, the Cardinals began with a basket by Mattes. The teams traded 3-pointers then with 4:20 left, Anderson scored for ADM and a technical foul was assessed against Millsap.

Allen sank both free throws but Newton couldn’t convert on its possession. Ethan Juergens had a three-point play for ADM which was countered by a 3-pointer from Arguello. Mattes scored with 1:09 left in the third quarter and Newton was down by five points.

The Cardinals snagged a defensive rebound then the ADM coach received a technical foul call. This time Mattes tossed in both free throws and Newton had the ball to close out the period. They couldn’t get a shot off and trailed 43-40.

When Allen netted a 3-pointer with 7:08 to play, Newton was within two points, 45-43. Mueller scored quick and turned a defensive rebound into a three-point play for the Tigers. Mueller stole the ball and had a layup pushing ADM’s back up to 52-43.

About a minute later, Mueller was injured on a play under the Tiger basket and left the game not to return. Allen and Long had consecutive treys to make it 52-49 with 3:50 remaining to play.

Caden Mager reeled off five straight points for the Tigers as he help convert Newton turnovers into points for his team. That started a 9-0 run by the Tigers.

“I thought we shot the ball better tonight overall but it comes down to giving them way more possessions than we had,” Carter said.

Mattes finished with 15 points for Newton followed by Allen’s 14 points. Long tossed in 11 points and Arguello had eight. Ingle and Coley each had two points. Newton had 10 3-pointers in the game — four by Allen and three from Long.

Mueller and Millsap each had 15 points for the Tigers. Conrad had 11 points. The Tigers (12-9) were 11-of-21 at the line.

‘We have three days to work on things and look at film and fix a few things before we get into substate play on Monday. It’s do or die on Monday,” Carter said.

Newton (7-14) plays in a Class 3A Substate 6 doubleheader at Oskaloosa on Monday. The Cardinals take on Bondurant-Farrar (9-12) at 6:30 p.m. followed by Oskaloosa (8-13) playing Carlisle (8-12) at 8 p.m.

Winners of Monday night’s games will play in a semifinal game at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Oskaloosa.

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