Grinnell sinks Cardinals with late free throw

Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter could have sounded off about a late foul call in the final seconds of the Cardinals’ home opener against Grinnell on Tuesday night.

But Carter felt like his team had plenty of opportunities to win the game before a foul was called with .3 seconds on the clock.

“We are not going to blame anything on that last call,” Carter said. “We have to shore up a few things to not be in that position. We had opportunities to win it. We missed free throws down the stretch, we got a good look at the end to win it and we missed a putback.”

The Cardinals led after each of the first two quarters and then rallied from an eight-point hole in the fourth to force overtime, but Ryan McIlrath’s free throw with .3 seconds to go was the difference in Grinnell’s 43-42 non-conference road win.

Newton had the ball in a tie game in the final seconds of both the fourth quarter and overtime but could not find the bucket.

The Cardinals were 1-of-4 from the foul line in the final 1:30, while Grinnell made 2-of-4 in the last 33 seconds.

“We had a lot of opportunities to win the game,” Carter said. “We don’t have everything in yet that we’d like to for those situations. But I thought the one in overtime, we had a pretty good play drawn up and we got a good look but we just missed the shot. And then we had an unfortunate foul. That’s the way it goes.”

The Cardinals (0-1) trailed 6-0 early, but Cade Bauer and Braelyn Parks canned back-to-back treys off the bench and Bauer’s second 3-pointer of the period gave Newton a 9-8 lead after one.

The lead grew to 13-8 after Caleb Mattes hit a fadeaway and Nate Lampe scored on a drive to the hoop. Lampe’s first 3 of the night put the Cardinals in front 16-13 at halftime.

The Tigers (1-0) overcame an 18-13 deficit and used a 10-2 run to go up 23-20. The advantage eventually got to 31-22 before Mattes drilled a 3 at the buzzer.

Caden Klein, who was hampered by foul trouble, scored on a drive to the rim to open the fourth.

Lampe made four triples in the fourth. He canned back-to-back-to-back treys with Newton down 38-30. The final 3 put the home team in front by one with 42 seconds to go in regulation.

A free throw by Cole Blackford with 35.6 seconds on the clock forced overtime.

“We didn’t execute a play at the end of regulation,” Carter said. “We had a player who wasn’t in the right spot, which blew up the play. We didn’t really get a shot off.

“Grinnell brought back a ton of experience. That probably did play a role. I thought we were a little timid early. That’s likely because of our lack of experience.”

Lampe intercepted the overtime tip won by Grinnell and scored quickly at the offensive end to open the extra session.

But Klein’s free throw with 1:04 to go was Newton’s only other point in overtime.

McIlrath missed two free throws with 3:45 to play, but scored inside to tie the game at 41-all and then won it with his final free throw late.

Klein missed most of the first half after picking up his second foul with 4:05 to play in the first. His third foul came midway through the third.

Christian Lawson also got his third foul early in the third and Mattes fouled out with 3:23 to go in overtime.

“That was big,” Carter said about the foul trouble. “It limited us to what we could do. We had to go a little deeper in our bench. Some of those bench guys just don’t have as many reps as our top group, but that will come with time.

“We are challenging a few kids to give us some minutes. We need a few more to step up and allow us to go deeper in our rotation. I think they will rise to the occasion. We just need to get them experience both in practice and when we can in games.”

Lampe finished with a career-high 19 points. He made five 3s and added four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Mattes registered nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, Klein tallied five points, six boards and two assists and Bauer chipped in six points, two rebounds and two steals off the bench.

Parks collected three points and two steals off the bench. Lawson grabbed three rebounds and Hunter Teague corralled two boards.

“Nate played his tail off and made a ton of plays. But as a team we just needed to make one more,” Carter said. “We have to stay out of foul trouble and be smart with how we apply ball pressure. We need those guys on the floor.”

The Cardinals shot 26.4 percent from the floor, made 9-of-30 from 3 and buried 5-of-8 from the free-throw line. They committed 10 turnovers.

McIlrath led all scorers with 22 points, while Blackford scored 11 and Derek Doty put in seven.

Newton’s lack of height was an issue against Grinnell and it hindered the Cardinals in their scrimmage with Carlisle, too.

“We have to be really physical,” Carter said. “We have strong and athletic kids. We have to do a better job of being in position early. There were times when we didn’t anticipate a few seals and we got buried. We have to do a better job of keeping the ball out of the post and we just need to apply a lot of ball pressure.”

Notes: The Cardinals played a 1-2-2 zone for most of the game, but Carter applied man-to-man ball pressure late in the fourth quarter with his team down on the scoreboard. “They didn’t hurt us too much on the zone, but we weren’t getting a lot of pressure on them,” Carter said. “I thought changing to more of a man-to-man pressure threw them off a little bit. We were able to get a few steals and a few buckets.” ... Newton graduated 13 seniors from last year’s state tournament team and only Mattes and Lampe played significant minutes on that squad. ... Grinnell has not had a winning season since 2015-16 but brought back its top six scorers and rebounders from last year’s 7-15 squad.