Lynnville-Sully takes on St. Mary’s in state opener

SULLY — Versatility is key to Lynnville-Sully’s success on the basketball court, according to senior Jesse Van Wyk.

Van Wyk and his Lynnville-Sully teammates are preparing for the program’s 14th appearance in the Iowa Class 1A boys’ state basketball tournament.

Van Wyk leads the Hawks in scoring and rebounding, but pointed out the team has three players scoring in double figures and two others providing five or more points a game.

“Teams can’t just focus on one player against us. We have versatile players who start and come off the bench, who can step up and score for us,” Van Wyk said. “We don’t know much about St. Mary’s, yet, and we’ll do more game planning later in the week.”

Lynnville-Sully’s opening-round opponent at 2:45 p.m. Monday is St. Mary’s, Remsen. It will be the battle of the Hawks.

Lynnville-Sully (22-3) drew the No. 6 seed in the state bracket and St. Mary’s (25-0) is the No. 3 seeded team. Lynnville-Sully was tied for the No. 4 ranking in 1A in the final high school poll and St. Mary’s was ranked third.

The Lynnville-Sully/St. Mary’s game is the last 1A quarterfinal game on Monday.

Top-ranked and undefeated North Linn (26-0) is the No. 1 seed and tips off state-tournament action against eighth-seeded Edgewood-Colesburg (21-4) at 9:30 a.m.

George-Little Rock (19-6), which is tied for the No. 4 ranking with Lynnville-Sully, was seeded No. 4 and plays No. 5 seed Don Bosco at 11:15 a.m. Don Bosco (22-3) is sixth ranked.

Class 1A defending state champion Grand View Christian (22-1) is ranked No. 2 and earned the No. 2 seed in the state tournament. Grand View Christian takes on seventh-seeded Council Bluffs St. Albert (15-9) at 1 p.m. Monday.

Lynnville-Sully had to win games back-to-back last weekend to reach the state tournament. It beat fellow South Iowa Cedar League member Montezuma for the third time this season to win the District 10 title on Friday night. The team turned around Saturday night to hold off Iowa Mennonite School to win the Substate 5 championship to advance to the state tournament.

“These guys have been blessed with some talent and ability, but they have also dedicated themselves to the game of basketball,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Nick Harthoorn said. “They have put in the time year round to develop the skills needed to play this game at a high level.”

Van Wyk said playing back-to-back was tough but didn’t affect the overall performance of the Lynnville-Sully team last weekend. He said when Iowa Mennonite made a run at them in the second half of the substate game, the Lynnville-Sully players knew they just had to finish strong.

“We learned several things from those two games which we’ll carry into the state tournament. The most important is we have to come out strong and keep playing strong no matter the score of the game,” Van Wyk said.

Van Wyk is a 6-foot-3 inch senior who leads Lynnville-Sully in scoring, averaging 14.5 points a game, and in rebounding with 208 rebounds. He also has dished out a team-high 85 assists this season and has blocked 33 shots.

Also averaging double digits in scoring is 6-foot-5 inch senior Tanner Foster with 12.9 points a game. Senior Brevin Hansen, a 5-foot-10 inch guard, averages 12 points a game. Hansen and Foster are the team’s leading 3-pointer field goal shooters. Hansen has 51 on the season for 42.5 percent shooting from behind the arc. Foster has drained 33 3-pointers for 35 percent.

Juniors Rylan James and Tyson Vander Linden round out the starting five for Lynnville-Sully as they average 8.6 and 7.1 points a game, respectively. James is the team’s second leading rebounder with 168. Vander Linden is another deep-threat shooter for Lynnville-Sully.

Hansen leads Lynnville-Sully with 60 steals and has dished out 82 assists. Vander Linden also has 85 assists, which ties him with Van Wyk for team leader.

“I don’t know a lot about St Mary’s at this point. My assistants and I will be digging into the film this week. Their scores demonstrate that they are a strong defensive team,” Harthoorn said. “They have held their last two opponents to 23 points. We are going to need to do a great job of moving and taking care of the basketball to get good looks.”

Lynnville-Sully averages 66.9 points a game and allows an average of 44 points a game to its opponents, St. Mary’s averages 66.9 points a game offensively and has allowed an average of 39 points a game to its opponents.

“We know they are a good defensive team. They also have a couple of big guys like we do,” Van Wyk said. “We’re just going to approach this game like we approached each game this season. Yes, it is at Wells Fargo Arena, but we’re going to play our game and see what happens.”

St. Mary’s also has three players averaging in double figure scoring led by 6-foot-4-inch senior Nicholas Ruden with 14.2 points a game and he is the team’s leading rebounder with 156. Sophomore Spencer Schorg is St. Mary’s top 3-point shooter — 54-of-128 for 42.2 percent — as he averages 13 points a game and has handed out 78 assists.

Brody Ricke is a 6-foot-2 inch senior averaging 10.9 points a game, leads St. Mary’s with 70 steals and has 75 assists. Senior Derrick Schorg, who is 6-foot-4, averages 8.9 points and has pulled down 143 rebounds. Carter Kuchel is a 6-foot-2-inch senior, averaging 8.6 points a game.

The winner between Lynnville-Sully and St. Mary’s will play in the 1A semifinals at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of Grand View Christian and St. Albert. The losers of the semifinal games will play for third place at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. The 1A championship game is at 2 p.m. on Friday.

Lynnville-Sully, St. Mary’s, North Linn and Grand View Christian are back in the state tournament from last year’s elite eight. Grand View Christian won the 2017 tile while North Linn beat St. Mary’s in the consolation game to finish third and fourth, respectively.

Lynnville-Sully is looking to get past the quarterfinal round this year. The 2017 trip to state was the first for the program since 2011.

Lynnville-Sully’s first trip to the 1A state tournament was in 1986 when it took fourth.

It went in 1991 then went four straight years — 1994-1997. The Hawks were third in 1996 and lost 66-65 to Guthrie Center in overtime in the 1997 championship game, taking second.

The Hawks went to state in 2000, 2001 and 2002. They were third in 2000 and fourth in 2001. Lynnville-Sully made it back to the state in 2005 before going back-to-back in 2010 and 2011.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
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