L-S boys have no trouble with English Valleys

SULLY — The Lynnville-Sully boys basketball team lit it up from outside to open its South Iowa Cedar League game against English Valleys on Friday.

The Hawks made 9-of-17 from deep in the game and seven of those makes came in the opening quarter as the hosts jumped on the Bears early and cruised to a 72-21 victory.

“It was good to get off to a hot start and really just put the game away in the first quarter,” Sawyer Veldhuizen said. “It gave us that confidence to finish the game strong, too.”

Already leading 13-2, Veldhuizen canned three consecutive triples to push the margin to 22-2 and the Hawks led 29-7 after one quarter.

Hendrick Lowry and Will Van Vark also buried a pair of triples in the frame. Lowry was 2-of-2 in the game and Van Vark made 3-of-5 from deep.

Veldhuizen opened the second with another trey, and the Hawks scored the first 15 of the period to go up 44-7.

“We were able to get our whole group in in the first half,” L-S head boys basketball coach Nick Harthoorn said. “That’s always fun when everyone can get out there and have a night like this where we can cheer everyone on. It’s a morale booster for the team.”

Six different players scored in the third as the Hawks (9-3, 6-3 in the SICL) won the quarter 13-3. The entire second half had a running clock.

Twelve different players scored in the game for L-S, which shot 51 percent from the floor and turned the ball over only nine times.

“We knew they had a hard-fought game last night so we figured their legs might be suffering a little bit so jumping on them right away was going to be important,” Harthoorn said.

The Hawks had a 25-0 advantage in second-chance points and scored 44 points off 32 English Valleys turnovers. The Bears (1-11, 0-9) shot 28 percent from the floor.

Veldhuizen led L-S with 14 points and two steals. He was 4-of-4 from 3.

“We wanted to come out strong, hit some shots, rebound hard and do all the little things,” Veldhuizen said. “We didn’t give them many o-boards and played great defense.”

Jack Bowlin added a career-high 12 points with three rebounds and two steals off the bench, Van Vark chipped in nine points, two rebounds and five assists and Carson Maston tallied four points, seven rebounds, two assists and five steals.

Lowry and Dawson James both finished with six points, two assists and two steals and Ethan Dunsbergen collected three points and five assists off the bench.

The bench also got six points from Cameyon James, four points and two rebounds from Michael Spooner, four points from Will Conover, three steals from Connor Deal and two rebounds from Terran Gosselink.

The Hawks finished with 20 assists and 20 steals in the victory.

“We wanted to play sharp, not be sloppy and limit our turnovers,” Harthoorn said. “We also wanted to play hard defense and work on good rotations and good communication. I feel like our guys did a good job of that tonight.”

Lynnville-Sully 60, Ankeny Christian Academy 56

ANKENY —The Hawks started fast and held off a late rally from Ankeny Christian Academy during a 60-56 road win on Saturday.

Four players scored in double figures, L-S made nearly half of its shots from the floor and dominated on the boards during the non-conference victory.

L-S led 16-10 after one and 28-18 at halftime. The Hawks extended the lead after three, but the Eagles won the fourth 21-14 to close the gap.

“It was a good win against a quality opponent,” Harthoorn said. “The guys competed hard on defense and worked together well on offense. We were able to make enough key plays down the stretch to secure the win.”

Dawson James led the Hawks with 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Maston added 13 points and nine rebounds, Van Vark chipped in 12 points, seven boards and four assists and Veldhuizen tallied 12 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Lowry pitched in three points, four assists and two steals, Bowlin registered three points and two boards and Deal grabbed two rebounds.

The Hawks, who have won five straight games, shot 49 percent from the floor, made 10-of-21 from the foul line and connected on 6-of-17 from 3. They turned the ball over 14 times and out-rebounded the Eagles 32-23.

Ankeny Christian (5-4) got 19 points and five boards from Jed Rood. The Eagles shot 42.3 percent from the floor, made 6-of-19 from 3 and connected 6-of-8 from the foul line.