April 18, 2024

Cardinals split with Tigers

Lynnville-Sully’s squads and Pella Christian teams earn splits; CMB sweeps Colfax-Mingo

By Jocelyn Sheets

Newton girls’ head coach Brandon Sharp (left) stands and encourages his players. At right, NHS boys’ head coach Nick Wilkins (left) and assistant coach Brian Conway (right) direct the Cardinals from the bench. Coachs, players and fans were rocking NHS Coaches vs. Cancer T-shirts during the home games Friday night against Grinnell. The Cardinal girls wore pink uniforms and pink was the color of the night for the teams. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Area high school basketball teams are nearing the end of regular-season play.

Newton’s boys upended Grinnell while the Cardinal girls dropped a heartbreaker to the ranked Tiger girls on Coaches vs. Cancer night. Lynnville-Sully’s girls lose and the boys roll to wins over B-G-M. CMB’s Raider teams deck Colfax-Mingo’s Tigerhawk teams in Heart of Iowa play. Pella Christian’s girls win and the Eagle boys fall to Norwalk.

Newton boys 60, Grinnell boys 43

NEWTON — Trailing just once, 3-2, Newton’s Cardinals ran the visiting Grinnell Tigers out of the NHS gym Friday night. The Cardinals came out firing on all cylinders as the took on one of the leaders in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

Chandler Sturtz ripped the nylons for six 3-pointers in a 24-point performance in Newton’s 80-43 win on Coaches vs. Cancer night for the Cardinals. Tyler Wood drained three treys on his way to 16 points.

“We shared the basketball tonight. Coach (Wilkins) told us to go out and play team basketball. That’s what we did and we got the job done,” Wood said, after the Cardinals handed the Tigers only their second loss in conference play.

Newton led 32-23 at halftime, extended that advantage to 44-31 by the end of the third quarter. With four minutes remaining in the game, Newton’s lead was 55-33.

Eli Dunne scored 14 points for the Tigers.

Newton goes to Oskaloosa Tuesday.

Grinnell girls 48, Newton girls 44

NEWTON — Nothing was settled until the final buzzer Friday night. Newton’s Cardinal girls battled to the last against 15th-ranked Grinnell.

Hannah Rhoads hit a free throw to put the Cardinals up 44-43 with 1:46 left. Newton’s defense held and held. Rhoads even got a defensive rebound, but was called for traveling when she came down and went to the floor with 52 seconds remaining.

Grinnell still had the ball. With 25 seconds left in the game, Madeline Wilkins rang up a 3-pointer for the Tigers, putting them up 46-44. A 3-pointer by Rhoads was off at the other end and the Tigers controlled the basketball. The Tigers hit two free throws with 5.5 seconds on the clock.

The Cardinals came down and had a good look at a three but it was off as the buzzer said.

“What an effort by our girls,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “This was a solid game by our girls from beginning to end.”

The game was knotted at 25-25 when Newton’s Michaela Jacobsen downed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer. That’s how the game went.

Jacobsen finished with 10 points for the Cardinals, who are 5-14 overall with two regular-season games remaining. Grinnell got 20 points from Deja Jackson, who was 12-of-16 at the free-throw line. Wilkins had 10 points.

The Cardinals travel to Oskaloosa Tuesday then host Pella Friday.

Lynnville-Sully boys win big, girls lose

SULLY — Lynnville-Sully’s boys jumped out quick, 11-5, on the B-G-M Bears Friday and never let up, winning 52-33.

Ben Trettin poured in 13 points for the Hawks and T.J. Cunningham added 12 points. Darin Hofer had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Bears got 11 points from Kyle Gritsch.

Class 1A fifth-ranked Lynnville-Sully’s girls got upended by B-G-M, 45-35. The Bears held the Hawks to five points in the final eight minutes to close out the game.

The Hawks committed 32 turnovers. Lysandra James scored 12 points for Lynnville-Sully and Cassie Cullen had 11 points.

Leading the Bears were Courtney Hawkins with 20 points, Kayleen Beck and Jolissa Kriegel with 10 points apiece.

CMB sweeps Colfax-Mingo

COLFAX — Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s girls decked the Colfax-Mingo girls 58-20 and the CMB boys powered past the Tigerhawks 62-32 on Friday night.

The CMB girls were up 27-8 at halftime. Jena Teed led Colfax-Mingo with seven points and six rebounds. No individual statistics were available for CMB.

The Raider boys kept the Tigerhawks winless, leading Colfax-Mingo 32-13 at halftime. Joey Nissen tossed in 14 points for CMB followed by Bryce Kemp with 13. Zach Samson had 10 rebounds.

Nate Smith scored 10 points for Colfax-Mingo.

Pella Christian splits against Norwalk

NORWALK — In Little Hawkeye Conference play Friday night, Pella Christian’s girls dispatched their host, Norwalk, 40-28, and the Warrior boys downed the PC Eagles 59-52.

Brooke Mitrisin and Lauren Jungling each had 10 points for Pella Christian’s girls.

No individual statistics were available for the PC boys.