L-S boys hoping for extended stay at ‘the Well’

SULLY — The Lynnville-Sully boys basketball program has had one losing season since head coach Nick Harthoorn took over the program 17 years ago.

The Hawks posted their ninth 20-win season this winter and have won 18 straight games heading into next week’s state tournament.

Winfield-Mount Union registered its second 20-win season in the past three years, but those are the only two in at least the last 18 years.

Despite the Hawks’ success the past two seasons and historically, the Wolves are ranked higher and go into the state tournament as the higher seed.

That’s just fine though for a Lynnville-Sully squad which is looking forward to its first trip to Wells Fargo Arena since the 2017-18 season.

“The school is really excited about it. It’s been the talk around the school,” L-S senior Corder Noun Harder said. “We are excited to be playing on Monday in front of a lot of our community.

“This is a very favorable matchup. We wanted this team because they have D-1 players and we want to go against them. We want a shot at it.”

Winfield-Mount Union’s roster features seniors Cam Buffington and Abram Edwards. They are both headed to play NCAA Division-I football next season at Iowa and Army, respectively.

For Class 1A No. 7 Lynnville-Sully to advance in the state tournament for the first time since the 2009-10 season, it will have to slow down both of those players.

“I play a lot like those guys both on the football field and the basketball court,” L-S sophomore Dawson James said. “It will be my kind of game. They’ll try to beat us up inside, which is what we like to do, too.

“I played linebacker and (Buffington) is going to Iowa to play linebacker. That’s something I have always wanted to do as well so I’m excited to see how I match up.”

The 6-foot-4 Buffington leads the Wolves in scoring at 19 points per game. Buffington also averages 7.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 55 percent from the floor. He’s 12-of-40 from 3-point range.

Edwards, who is 6-6, averages 14.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest while shooting 63 percent from the floor.

The only other Winfield-Mount Union player averaging in double-figures is 6-4 junior Jake Edwards. He’s averaging 10.7 points and 4.0 assists per contest.

Jake Edwards has made 51 shots from deep and is shooting 3s at a 39.5 percent clip.

“They have quite a bit of height,” L-S senior Keegan DeWitt said. “They have one good 3-point shooter and play physical. We’ll need to play physical, too, which we like to do anyway.”

When it comes to statistics, the Hawks and the fifth-ranked Wolves are pretty even.

There’s not much difference in field goal percentage (46 to 48.8), 3-point percentage (30.2 to 31.2), free throw percentage (55.4 to 53.1), points per game (64.4 to 62) and points allowed per game (39.7 to 35).

The two teams are separated by just two points in their average margin of victory and are pretty even in turnovers per game, too.

One advantage Lynnville-Sully (24-1) has is in its depth.

The Hawks have eight players who have appeared in at least 22 games this season and seven have appeared in at least 24 games.

Winfield-Mount Union (20-2) doesn’t get much past the five starters when the game is close. Only six Wolves have played in at least 19 games.

“That will be important and it could come into play on a 94-foot court,” Harthoorn said. “They don’t want to go too deep. They may go six or seven, but they don’t do it often.

“I definitely think we have to use that to our advantage. We need to try to wear them out, get up and down and take advantage of some transition points.”

Neither Lynnville-Sully nor Winfield-Mount Union has been in a lot of close games this winter.

The Hawks have won 23 of their games by double digits and their lone loss was a 59-56 defeat against sixth-ranked Keota back on Dec. 15.

The Wolves have 18 double-figure wins and their lone loss to an Iowa team came on Feb. 3 against 2A No. 6 West Burlington.

West Burlington, which is in the 2A state tournament field as the No. 4 seed, downed Winfield-Mount Union 45-38.

The Wolves survived their district championship game, 51-49, against Burlington Notre Dame and also downed Holy Trinity Catholic, 46-41, in the substate championship game.

“They’ve made it this far. They’ll be a solid team,” L-S senior Lucas Sieck said. “We just have to play our style of basketball and if we play our way, we should be able to come out with the dub.”

Sieck is one of five Hawks who started at least 24 of the 25 games this season.

Seniors Klayton Van Dyke and Mitchell Miller have started all 25 games and lead the Hawks in scoring.

Van Dyke is averaging 12.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting 66 percent from the floor. He enters the state tournament with 921 career points.

“We’ve acknowledged the fact that we got a banner, but it’s time to move on,” Van Dyke said. “I get to play against a lot of smaller players for most of the year. This will be a challenge. I will probably be guarding Abram and we play similar styles.”

Miller averages a team-best 12.8 points per game. He also grabs 3.2 boards per contest and dishes out 2.4 assists per tilt.

“They have some size and they’ll be physical,” Miller said. “We know they’re a good team. We have to come in with our heads on straight. We just have to play our way and not worry about a call here or a call there. Just show up and play.”

James is averaging 9.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. He’s made 23 starts and is shooting 57.3 percent from the floor.

Noun Harder and Sieck have each started the 24 games they’ve played in. Sieck is averaging 5.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

Noun Harder is averaging 8.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and a team-best 4.5 assists per game. He’s shooting 34 percent from 3 and enters the state tournament with 855 career points.

The other three Hawks who are expected to see regular playing time at Wells Fargo Arena are DeWitt and juniors Carson Maston and Hendrick Lowry.

DeWitt is averaging 4.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, while Maston is shooting 50 percent from the floor and averaging 5.2 points and 5.5 boards per contest. Lowry is shooting 35 percent from 3 and averages 3.3 points per game.

“It will be a cool experience for everyone. We haven’t been there in a while so it will be fun,” Maston said. “They are a tough, physical team. They made it to the ‘Well’ so we’re expecting to play a good team. It’s going to be important to be physical.

“The refs don’t blow the whistle as much at this point in the season so we need to play through contact and push through the adversity.”

A physical game could bring about some free throws. And neither team is shooting better than 55 percent from the foul line.

The Hawks were 18-of-27 in their substate win over Bedford and made 16-of-28 in the district championship win over ACGC.

Winfield-Mount Union combined to connect on just 13-of-27 in its two most recent postseason games.

“Whatever team is making more free throws will have a better chance of winning,” Sieck said. “It will play a big part in the game.”

While the Wolves’ roster features two future Division-I football players, it may not include a state cross country qualifier like Lowry.

That’s another reason why the Hawks will look to run at every opportunity.

“If we can get out and run in transition, that can be big for us,” Lowry said. “They are big and strong. We need to play hard and take care of the ball.”

The Hawks and Wolves are scheduled to tip off in a 1A quarterfinal at 12:15 p.m. on Monday inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The first 1A quarterfinal features top-ranked and top-seeded North Linn (23-1) and eighth-seeded Woodbine (23-2).

Third-ranked and second-seeded Marquette Catholic (25-1) faces seventh-seeded Gladbrook-Reinbeck (21-5) and fourth-ranked and third-seeded Lake Mills (24-1) takes on eighth-ranked and sixth-seeded North Union (22-3) in the other quarterfinals on the opposite side of the bracket.

The Hawks-Wolves winner faces either North Linn or Woodbine in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The 1A championship game is slated to tip off at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“We will dial into Winfield-Mount Union,” Harthoorn said about preparing for the state-tournament field. “We won’t really worry about the next game until this first one is over. If we are fortunate enough to win the first one, you can get right on the computer and get a bunch of film right away.”