Cardinals bury 14 treys in win over Hoover

DES MOINES — Des Moines Hoover scored the first two baskets of the second quarter to take a two-point lead in the game.

After that, the Newton boys basketball team went on a 13-2 run, and it put away the host Huskies for good during an 85-65 non-conference victory on Friday night.

“Being able to get stops defensively was absolutely huge during that stretch,” Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter said. “I felt like we really crashed the glass. We thought they could hurt us on the glass if we weren’t mindful of getting our bodies on them and tracking those rebounds down.

“We forced them into turnovers and got some run outs. Any time you can get some easy ones, that’s huge for making big runs like that.”

Only two players scored in double figures for Newton, but Isaiah Slaughter dropped a career-high 30 points and Brody Wobschall totaled a career-best 20 off the bench to lead the Cardinals.

The 85 points were easily a season high for Newton. The Cardinals’ previous best point total was the 66 they scored in the season opener against Grinnell.

Newton also buried a season-best 14 3-pointers. Wobschall was 6-of-9 from deep and Slaughter finished 5-of-9.

“That will be huge for us all year,” Carter said about the 14 treys. “When we struggle offensively we can’t hit shots from the perimeter. It allows us to space the floor and get buckets down low. That gives us some balance. That’s what we’ll have to continue to do well.

“We have some dudes who can shoot it. Getting those guys to shoot with confidence is going to be important for us moving forward.”

Slaughter opened the game with a 3-pointer and a Karter Holmes’ triple put Newton (3-4) back in front.

The two teams went back and forth in the opening quarter. The lead changed 10 times until the Cardinals went in front 21-17 on a Slaughter runner in the lane.

Newton led 21-19 after one and nine of Slaughter’s 30 came in the first. Tyler Thompson also added six points off the bench to keep the Cardinals close.

Wobschall’s best stretch of the game came during the team’s 13-2 run. Hoover led 23-21 until Wobschall hit a 3 and buried two free throws to put the visitors in front for good.

Back-to-back triples by Wobschall and Slaughter extended Newton’s lead to 34-25 and forced Hoover to call timeout.

Wobschall opened the season as a starter but came off the bench for the second time this year against the Huskies.

“It felt really good,” Wobschall said. “I’ve been in a bit of slump recently. It was good to see the ball go in and hopefully I can carry that over to the rest of the season.

“I can be that spark of offense and I’m usually playing some other reserves so that benefits me a little bit.”

Hoover (0-7) closed the gap to six after the timeout, but Newton scored seven of the final 10 and six straight to end the half and led 41-31 at the break.

Wobschall and Dawson Maki canned consecutive treys to end the half. Those shots came after the Huskies closed the margin to four on a 3 by Diyon Berry.

“I still feel like we have to be quicker on our feet against the dribble drive and make sure we close our gaps up,” Carter said. “We have to know who doesn’t really want to shoot the ball from outside. We need to help off the right guys and we lost (Berry) two or three times in the first half. We knew he was able to shoot it. We did better in the second half.”

The second half belonged to Hoover’s Isaac Fandeh, who scored 19 of his 29 points in the final two frames. He tried to keep the Huskies close, but Newton scored 44 points in the second half to pull away.

Slaughter scored 20 of his 30 in the final two quarters. Leading by 13, Newton ended the third on an 11-0 run. Slaughter scored four of those points and Wobschall began and ended the spurt with treys.

“That was great for him,” Slaughter said about Wobschall. “It’s always positive when guys aren’t on and a bench player comes in and drops 20. He played his role well and hit some big shots.”

Caden Klein made his season debut for the Cardinals. He scored his only bucket of the game in the fourth, but having his veteran presence on the floor is big for a team made up largely of inexperienced players.

“He’s started for two years and gives the other guys a sense of calm,” Carter said. “Having that extra voice and leadership on the floor with our inexperienced guys is huge. Even though he didn’t score very many points, he’s doing a lot of other things to put our guys in position to be successful.”

Slaughter’s final basket was a 3 that put him at his new career high of 30. That came after Klein’s layup and swelled the margin to 79-53.

Slaughter added seven rebounds, three assists and four steals to his 30 points. Wobschall grabbed four rebounds, too.

“I was happy that one went in,” Slaughter said about the 3 that got him to 30. “(Dawson Maki) called out a play for me when I got to 27. So I went ahead and shot it. Glad it went in.”

Maki put in five points and added six rebounds, a career-best eight assists and three steals.

Holmes totaled eight points and two assists, Klein had two points and three assists and Grant Osby contributed four points and four rebounds.

Thompson gave the Cardinals another spark off the bench. He finished with nine points, five rebounds and four assists.

Newton shot 46.2 percent from the floor, made 14-of-30 from 3 and connected on 11-of-20 from the free-throw line.

The Cardinals turned the ball over 11 times, swiped 13 steals and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.