“The lesser of two evils.”

That’s how Newton boys basketball coach Nick Wilkins described his team’s strategy when it came to defending the Little Hawkeye Conference top-ranked Grinnell Tigers. Wilkins’ team could either keep defense tight in the paint or focus on covering the outside shot.

“We came into tonight kind of picking the lesser of two evils,” Wilkins said. “Their posts are the best posts in the conference, (Eli) Duane and (Joe) Schmidt — those kids are really solid players. We knew we had to stay in the paint and close out. We knew we were going to give some open looks up, and that’s how we were going to play; it worked very well for us.”