Newton boys use big second half to pull away from Eagles

An 11-0 run got the Newton boys basketball team some separation between the end of the first quarter and start of the second against Pella Christian on Tuesday.

But a 19-0 spurt spanning the end of the third and the start of the fourth was the difference in the Cardinals’ 68-51 victory over the Eagles.

Newton led by six after one quarter and at halftime but dominated the second half of the Little Hawkeye Conference matchup.

“That was huge,” Newton junior Caden Klein said about the 19-0 second-half run. “We had some good defensive intensity, won the 50-50 balls, rebounded well and pressured them like crazy.”

The Cardinals made shots at the other end of the floor, too. They shot 52.8 percent from the floor in the game and had a 10-1 advantage in made 3-pointers.

Newton also dished out 19 assists on its 28 field goals and were 10-of-25 from 3 in the game.

“We got some stops and took away their high-low pass, we guarded their post players better and made them take tough shots,” Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter said. “They don’t like to shoot a ton of 3s. We were able to get some long rebounds and some push outs off their missed 3s and that led to easy buckets. We also made shots on the other end and found a way to spread them out.”

Pella Christian’s height gave Newton trouble throughout the first half and during the early portion of the second half.

The Eagles led 5-2 and 8-4 in the first. Cade Bauer’s 3 cut Pella’s Christian’s lead to 8-7 and Dawson Maki drilled a 3 and converted a layup after a steal to give the Cardinals a 12-10 lead.

Newton finished the first on a 6-0 run thanks to back-to-back triples from Isaiah Slaughter and Klein.

The spurt finalized at 11-0, but Pella Christian scored nine of the next 12 to close its gap to 26-21. The Eagles eventually got within three before Bauer’s trey at the end of the quarter pushed the margin back to six at halftime.

“It was a testament to our kids. They battled through it,” Carter said. “We knew shots were going to fall for us. When they start to fall, things can pile up in a hurry.”

It was back-and-forth at the start of the third as the Cardinals answered every bucket by the Eagles.

Klein hit another 3, Landon Bozarth banked in a jumper and Tyler Thompson scored consecutive Newton hoops to keep the home team’s lead at seven.

The 19-0 run started with a Creighton Andrew layup and finished with a Bozarth bucket inside.

In between featured two 3s and a jumper from Slaughter, a Bozarth runner and another trey from Klein.

It quickly went from 43-38 to 61-38, and the Eagles never got within 15 the rest of the way.

“Every team in our conference is competitive so it’s always nice to get a win,” Klein said. “I will always be happy with beating any team in this conference.”

Klein led the Cardinals (5-3, 2-2 in the conference) with 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. He was 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-4 from 3-point range.

Slaughter, a freshman, added a career-best 12 points and chipped in three rebounds off the bench. He was 2-of-4 from long range.

“He has absolutely no fear on the court and has confidence in his ability to score,” Carter said. “He’s a heck of a ball player and puts a lot of time in on the court.”

Klein knew what Newton was getting when the coaching staff decided to bring Slaughter up to the varsity level over winter break. He was even advocating to get them to do it sooner.

“He’s been awesome,” Klein said. “I’ve been telling coaches we needed to get him up with us since the beginning of the year. Over Christmas break, he finally started practicing with us and was playing well so we knew we had to give him a shot.”

Bozarth finished with 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, Bauer was 3-of-7 from 3 and scored nine points and Maki chipped in seven points, two assists and two steals.

Thompson added four points in his first career varsity start while Andrew tallied six points and three boards and Christian Ergenbright chipped in four rebounds and five assists off the bench.

The Eagles (4-4, 1-2) had a significant advantage from the free-throw line, making 14-of-23, but shot 37 percent from the floor and were only 1-of-15 from 3.

The Cardinals were just 2-of-4 from the foul line but 10 players scored in the win.

“If we can have balanced scoring like that and having our guys shooting and scoring with confidence, that will go a long way and we’ll be a really tough out,” Carter said.

Gilbert Flagel led Pella Christian with 16 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Landon Fransman added 12 points and four boards. Cooper Spronk tallied nine points and 11 rebounds.

Flagel and Fransman are 6-foot-5 and 6-6, respectively, but Newton held a 28-27 advantage in rebounding.

“It’s pretty tough going against their height, but we had guys in help-side and were able to play two guys on the one,” Klein said. “Our advantage is that we are quick enough to scramble back on the shooters. Just being intense, quick and flying around on the defensive end was big for us.”

Notes: Newton sophomore Grant Osby registered his first career varsity points and junior Micah Mattes made his first varsity bucket in the fourth quarter. … Pella Christian is 27-9 against Newton since 2007. The last three seasons have ended in sweeps from either team. … Both teams came into the night having lost three of its previous four games.