Slow start plagues Newton boys in loss to Pella

Take away the final part of the first quarter and the Newton boys basketball team played well enough to win on Friday during its Little Hawkeye Conference battle with rival Pella.

Unfortunately, a 12-2 run to end the first by the Dutch was enough to grab an advantage for good and Pella escaped the Cardinals’ gym with a 62-57 road win on Christmas in the Gym Night.

“We just couldn’t get stops. They got off to a hot start and when any team gets some easy ones, everything just goes in,” Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter said. “It started with us digging in defensively and keeping the ball. They got way too many layups. I think they scored 29 points in the quarter and only two buckets were 3s.”

Pella was 5-of-17 from 3-point range in the game and three of those makes came in the opening quarter. But most of the damage done by the Dutch came within a few feet of the hoop.

The Cardinals were much better in the final three quarters and had the ball in a one-possession game multiple times but couldn’t come up with points at the offensive end of the floor.

Newton also didn’t secure a rebound after Brayden Traetow missed the second of two free throws with the Dutch up three with 10.2 seconds to go.

Teagan Hoekstra got his hands on the loose ball and tipped it back to Traetow, who then made both free throws with 7.4 seconds on the clock.

“It’s really easy to point out a missed shot, a turnover or a missed layup down the stretch, but we missed a bunch of bunnies in the first quarter, missed a bunch of free throws in the first half and they made their inside shots,” Carter said.

Pella used a fast start to grab an 8-2 lead early, but Cade Bauer kept the Cardinals close with sharpshooting from outside.

Bauer’s first triple trimmed the margin to 8-5 and then another 3 made it 10-8. His fadeaway jumper and third trey of the quarter kept Newton within striking distance, but a 10-0 run that included a dunk by Jack McGuire, a three-point play by Traetow and a triple from Michael Manning extended the Dutch’s lead to 27-13 and they led by 14 after one.

Pella scored the first two buckets of the second quarter to push its advantage to 18. Twenty of the Dutch’s first 33 points were scored within a few feet of the basket.

“That’s just something we can’t do,” Carter said. “I get we are undersized. We still have to find ways to help each other out and dig in defensively. We have to make it tough for teams to score around the bucket, and we did not do that in the first quarter. I felt like we did a much better job as the game went on.”

The Cardinals won the second 17-9 as they finished the half on a 17-5 run. Caden Klein got things started with a reverse layup and Tyler Thompson finished it with a bucket inside the lane.

Bauer started a 13-0 run with another 3 and Dawson Maki scored five straight to close the gap to seven. Bauer’s fifth trey of the half and Thompson’s bucket inside made it 36-32 before Pella (4-2, 1-0 in the conference) scored one more time inside to close out the half.

Bauer scored 17 of his career-high 20 points in the first half. Eleven of those came in the opening quarter. He was 6-of-8 from 3 in the game and is shooting 48.6 percent from distance through five games this season.

“He was enormous in the first half,” Carter said about Bauer. “They were helping off him early, and he stepped up and made some big shots. I felt like he didn’t score in the second half, but them not helping off him allowed some of our other guys to get downhill and it opened up shots for others. We had a more balanced attack in the second half.”

Newton won the third 12-10 and trailed by four heading into the final quarter. Creighton Andrew scored all seven of his points in the frame and Landon Bozarth put in all five of his points in the quarter, too.

Bozarth banked in a 3 that made it 45-42 and Andrew’s putback with contact got the Cardinals to within 48-44 after three.

“We just had to get one stop and then score. And then get one more stop,” Carter said. “You have to break it down into smaller games and continue to grind for stops. When you can string together four or five stops in a row and score at the other end, you can turn the tide in a hurry. With this group, the way they can shoot the ball, there’s no deficit under 20 that’s too big.”

The fourth belonged to Maki. Pella outscored the Cardinals 14-13 in the final frame, but Maki was active on both ends of the floor.

Bauer’s final points came on a 3 early in the quarter and Maki got Newton to within two on two separate baskets inside and then another layup closed the margin to 57-54 late in the frame.

One of Bauer’s missed 3s rimmed out and Maki missed a contested layup with Newton down three late in the frame. Maki might have gotten fouled on the play but nothing was called.

Christian Ergenbright’s only basket of the game was a 3 with 10.7 seconds left on the clock. Braetow answered with three free throws in the final 10 seconds to close out the win.

“Our defense wasn’t very good in the first quarter, but I didn’t think theirs was all that great either,” Carter said. “They just made a lot of shots around the rim and we didn’t. That’s what gave them the separation. I thought the kids adjusted well and responded well and I’m super proud of them.”

Maki finished with a career-high 13 points and four steals before fouling out in the final seconds. Bauer added three rebounds, four assists and two steals to his career-high 20 points.

Klein finished with seven points, five rebounds and four assists, Ergenbright chipped in three points, three rebounds and two steals and Bozarth scored five and dished out two assists. Andrew put in seven points and grabbed two boards.

The Cardinals (3-2, 1-2) shot 40.4 percent from the floor, made 9-of-23 from 3 and missed seven of their nine free throws. Newton committed only nine turnovers but was out-rebounded 36-21.

Maki appeared in just four games last season and scored one point. In five games this season, he’s averaging 5.4 points per game after his career night on Friday.

“He was an absolute scrapper tonight,” Carter said about Maki. “That kid has come a long way in the last year. He challenged himself to want to play varsity basketball. I will never fault him for playing hard because he plays his tail off every single second he’s on the floor, and that’s a big reason why he’s playing the way he is right now.”

Pella has won three straight games in the series. Traetow led the Dutch with 14 points, which was six points above his season average.

McGuire had 11 points and nine rebounds before fouling out and Austin Schulte chipped in 10 points and five boards. Ten Dutch players scored in the game and five had at least eight points.

Pella shot 52.2 percent from the floor and buried 9-of-11 from the foul line. The Dutch were plagued by 19 turnovers.

Dallas Center-Grimes 73, Newton 31

GRIMES — The Cardinals struggled from the floor, turned the ball over 18 times and scored a season low in points during a 73-31 road loss to Dallas Center-Grimes on Tuesday night.

Newton trailed 17-4 after one and scored in single digits in the third and fourth quarters, too. The Cardinals were outscored 21-12 in the second, 20-4 in the third and 15-7 in the fourth.

“Part of having a lack of experience is the guys don’t understand the level they have to play with in games like this,” Carter said. “The good news is it’s early in the season, and we can start to bring the intensity the rest of the way and give ourselves a better chance to beat the good teams in our conference. That’s our goal.”

It was DCG’s third straight win over Newton, and the Mustangs are 17-6 in the series since 2014.

Klein led the Cardinals with eight points and five rebounds and Bauer added six points and four rebounds. Andrew put in seven points, Bozarth grabbed four rebounds and Ergenbright pulled down two boards.

Maki led the reserves with six points and two rebounds. Micah Mattes and Jonah Tibben each grabbed three boards off the bench.

Newton shot 28.3 percent from the floor, made 2-of-19 from 3 and was 3-of-6 from the foul line.

Kyle Cason led DCG (3-3, 2-0) with 27 points and six rebounds and Tate Perrin put in 14 points. Cason was averaging 23.7 points through five games.

The Mustangs shot 61 percent from the floor, made 5-of-16 from 3 and connected on 12-of-16 from the foul line. They committed only five turnovers.