‘Well’come Back

OSKALOOSA — Six ties. Thirteen lead changes. And the largest lead in the game before the fourth quarter was five points.

Neither Newton nor Solon could create much separation through the first three periods during the Class 3A Substate 6 championship game on Tuesday night.

But a strong final frame pushed the Newton boys’ basketball team over the hump during a 60-46 victory at a packed Oskaloosa High School that featured a pro-Cardinal crowd.

The Cardinals used an 11-1 run in the fourth to pull away for good and the victory sends Newton back to Wells Fargo Arena and the boys’ state basketball tournament for the first time since the program qualified in 4A back in 2017.

“It feels awesome. This was a long time coming for this big group of seniors,” senior Brody Bauer said. “It’s something we’ve all dreamed about for a long time and to see all the hard work pay off was rewarding.”

Bauer is one of 13 seniors on the Cardinals’ roster. He led the way against Solon with 20 points, but the final quarter belonged to fellow senior Cole Plowman.

Plowman finished with 16 points, but half of those came in the fourth when the Cardinals were flexing their muscles on the Spartans.

“This doesn’t feel real yet. This team has put so much hard work in to get here,” Plowman said. “The seniors have been together for a long time preparing for this moment and it’s an unbelievable feeling.”

The Cardinals earned the No. 4 seed for the Iowa High School Boys State Basketball Championships and open tournament play against seventh-ranked and fifth-seeded North Polk at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Newton will be joined at the state tournament by Little Hawkeye Conference foes Norwalk (4A) and Pella Christian (2A). It’s the ninth straight season that at least two LHC teams qualified for the state tournament. The last four 3A state champions play in the LHC, too.

Bauer buried a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to put Newton in front 36-33.

Three free throws by Jake Benzing tied the game at 36-all and two more freebies by Solon (18-6) put it back in front by a pair early in the fourth.

After the two teams traded buckets, it was all Newton. Jake Ingle connected on a trey with 6:23 to play in the game and the Cardinals never trailed again.

Plowman’s three-point play with 5:52 left made it 44-41 and Plowman added a free throw and a bucket inside moments later to keep Newton in front.

The Cardinals’ top-three scorers brought the victory home. Ingle’s almost impossible baseline fallaway jumper with 3:39 to go made it 49-43 and then he took a charge at the other end.

Tade Vanderlaan scored on a putback to extend the lead to eight and it stayed at eight when Plowman got another basket inside the lane with 1:22 to go. Twenty-four seconds earlier, Plowman blocked a Spartan 3-point attempt.

Bauer made 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final 40 seconds and Ingle was 2-of-2 from the charity stripe to finish off Solon.

“It feels fantastic. We knew what this group was capable of. It was a matter of just doing what we knew we could do,” Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter said. “This is a special group. It really is. They maintained their composure and played for each other. It was a fun night.”

It was a challenging night, too. Solon gave Newton all it wanted for more than three quarters.

Bauer opened the game with a 3 and then knocked down another shot from long range to put Newton in front 8-6. An alley-oop dunk by Plowman made it 10-8, but Solon connected on a pair of triples to go in front 14-10 after one. The Spartans made four treys in the opening frame.

Benzing came into the game averaging 17.7 points per game and he had 13 in the first half. He sank a jumper and buried a 3 on back-to-back possessions in the second to give the Spartans their biggest lead of the game at 19-14.

The Cardinals ended the half on an 8-2 run that included two buckets inside by Plowman and hoops in the lane by Drew Thompson and Bauer.

Newton (17-6) led 22-21 at halftime. There were six lead changes in the first two periods.

It was a back-and-forth third frame. There were five lead changes in all. Caleb Mattes buried two free throws to put Newton in front by one and Bauer canned another trey to extend the lead. Mattes then hit two more free throws to push the margin to four.

Mattes was aggressive when the ball was in his hands. He finished with five points and all five came from the foul line.

“I feel like I can do that more often,” Mattes said. “The pump fake and drive and go to the hoop was there for me so I took it and was able to get to the line.”

Bauer’s 3 at the end of the third answered four straight from Solon and put his team back on top after 24 minutes.

Solon outscored Newton 14-10 in the first, but the Cardinals won every other quarter and buried the Spartans with a 24-13 advantage in the fourth.

“One of their bigs got into foul trouble so at that point we just needed to get the ball to Cole and let him go to work,” senior Jake Ingle said. “He got some easy ones inside and it created some separation and then we got some steals and layups in transition.”

Seven of Ingle’s 11 points came in the fourth and Plowman added eight of his 16 in the final frame. Bauer put in six points in the fourth and four came from the line in the final minute.

Plowman scored 12 of his 16 points inside the lane and added eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks. He also missed a few more shots than he would have liked earlier in the game.

“I took him out in the last few minutes of the third and challenged him,” Carter said. “I knew he was going to be the difference in the game. We needed to get him going and he really rose to the challenge in the fourth.”

Bauer led all scorers with 20 points and he chipped in two rebounds and two assists. Ingle registered 11 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals.

“With five or six minutes to go, I think we were up three and Caleb was at the line for free throws,” Bauer said. “That was exactly where we wanted to be. It was all in front of us, and it was time to go take it. And that’s what we did.

“Cole would be the first to tell you he missed some shots he should have made, but he took over when he needed to.”

Vanderlaan added six points and five boards, Mattes scored five points and Thompson grabbed a pair of boards.

The Cardinals shot 46.3 percent from the floor, made 6-of-17 from 3 and connected on 16-of-19 from the foul line. They only committed seven turnovers and registered 14 assists on 19 field goals.

It was Newton’s third straight win and the Cardinals improved to 11-1 against 3A competition this season.

Newton held Benzing to five points in the second half. He converted a bucket in the final two minutes of the third and made three free throws after being fouled on a 3 on the first possession of the fourth.

Benzing took a hard foul with 3:11 to play in the third and didn’t appear to be the same player after he returned to the game. Newton rotated Mattes, Thompson and Carson Satterfield on him throughout the game.

“We made it tough for (Benzing) to catch the ball. When we made things tough for him, they kind of had to scramble and play out of control and I felt like that was the difference,” Carter said. “Caleb, Carson and Drew all did a fantastic job on him. That was the difference in the game.

“We just wanted to stay the course defensively and we knew our offense would eventually get enough buckets to win.”

Bauer went as far as saying Mattes’ defensive effort on Benzing was the key to the entire game. Plowman and Ingle agreed that holding the Spartans to 46 points was a huge accomplishment.

“It was challenging. He’s a good player. But you have to have the mindset of just not letting him score,” Mattes said about his defensive assignment on Benzing. “I think our confidence took over in the fourth. We knew we were the better team and we came together and got it done.”

Notes: Newton’s lone loss to a 3A school came against No. 1 ranked and top-seeded Bondurant-Farrar. The undefeated Bluejays (23-0) open state-tournament play against eighth-seeded Algona (17-7). The other first-round matchups feature second-seeded and fourth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (18-6) against seventh-seeded Des Moines Hoover (15-9) and third-seeded and fifth-ranked Marion (19-5) against sixth-seeded and 10th-ranked Sioux City Bishop Heelan (18-6). … Carter’s experience on Tuesday was even more special because the win happened on the court he played on as a prep. “I spent a lot of my young days in that gym,” Carter said. “It was a thrill to be in that gym and to make this happen on that floor. I never thought the biggest game I ever won (here) would be 21 years later. Being in that gym and doing this tonight with this group of guys was pretty special.”