SULLY — Forget about the NCAA. It was Big Monday in the South Iowa Cedar League.

Facing a rematch with the team that had dealt it its only conference loss of the season, the Lynnville-Sully boys basketball team was in search of some redemption and a conference title.

Despite an effort that was grittier than eating sandpaper, the Hawks (16-3, 16-2) fell victim to a late run by Sigourney, which escaped with a 49-45 and the conference crown.

"It was a tough ballgame and we knew it was going to be that way coming in," Hawks coach Nick Harthoorn said. "We came up on the short end of the stick tonight, but those are the types of games we need this time of year."

The Hawks' main charge was stopping Sigourney senior Vaclav Bujnoch, a foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic that had a host of college scouts watching him in the stands. Although Lynnville-Sully junior TJ Cunningham scored the game's first four points and the Hawks kept Sigourney off the scoreboard until the 4:30 mark of the first, Bujnoch still managed eight first-quarter points and put his team up 11-7 after one.

The Hawks opened the second with a putback by freshman Connor Cullen and a 3-pointer from Cunningham, but both teams slowed down offensively over the next few minutes. Although the Hawks were having issues getting the ball inside, tough defense on Bujnoch and four late points from Cullen put the Hawks down only 19-18 going into halftime after Bujnoch hit a pair of free throws to end the half.

“Our approach was trying to make him beat us from the outside,” Harthoorn said of Bujnoch. “He can shoot the ball well from the arch, but when he’s penetrating and making plays at the rim, he’s truly tough to stop. He hit some big shots tonight, and I don’t think we could’ve done anything different defensively.”