L-S boys use late run to pull away from Baxter

SULLY — The first three quarters in the boys basketball contest featuring Lynnville-Sully and Baxter were back-and-forth.

The Bolts rallied from a seven-point hole in the first quarter and a five-point deficit in the second but couldn’t recover from a 9-1 run by the Hawks in the fourth during a 67-60 non-conference road loss on Saturday.

“They went on a 9-1 run,” Baxter head boys basketball coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “Outside of that, I thought we did everything we needed to do to win the game. They just made a lot of buckets down the stretch and got a run we couldn’t overcome.”

The buckets came from a balanced Hawks’ offense. Will Van Vark and Hendrick Lowry scored nine of their 11 points in the first half, Dawson James put in nine of his 15 in the second half and Sawyer Veldhuizen got 10 of his team-high 17 in the final frame to lead the hosts.

But it was Veldhuizen’s back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers during the Hawks’ 9-1 run that gave L-S the separation they needed to win the game.

“We were able to run a baseline out of bounds play that got (Veldhuizen) loose with 3 seconds left on the clock,” Lynnville-Sully head boys basketball coach Nick Harthoorn said. “He made that 3 that put us up four and then got a couple other ones and those were obviously big.”

The Hawks and Bolts were tied at 18-all after one quarter and even at 34-all at halftime and Baxter went into the fourth with a one-point advantage.

But Lynnville-Sully outscored its visitors 18-10 in the final frame to pull away at home.

It also was Baxter’s third game in three days and the Bolts’ second-leading scorer, Perrin Sulzle, played the game under the weather.

“We probably had fresher legs than they did,” Harthoorn said. “That might have played a factor in the fourth.”

Cainan Travis, who had a career scoring night for the Bolts, got the first basket of the game before L-S scored nine in a row to take an early 9-2 lead.

Baxter rallied with 3s from Maddux Tuhn and Stadan Vansice and two more treys from Dakota Parker and Travis kept the score even after one.

There were five ties in the second. L-S (12-4) took a five-point lead following a runner by Lowry. He answered another Parker 3 with a triple of his own earlier in the quarter, but Sulzle canned a trey and scored inside to bring the score back to even at 32-all. It was 34-all at halftime.

Neither team led by more than two in the third and there were six ties. James answered baskets by Travis and Eli Dee to keep the score tied and then got another bucket later to put the Hawks in front 42-40.

A spinning jumper from Dee pushed the Bolts back in front by two. He then sunk a pair of free throws before a freebie by Logan Rainsbarger gave Baxter a 50-49 advantage with 8 minutes to play.

“I wouldn’t say we played bad tonight,” Hasselbrink said. “They just made a few more buckets than we did down the stretch.”

The fourth quarter belonged to Veldhuizen, who scored 10 of the Hawks’ 18 points in the frame.

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued early, but Veldhuizen’s 3 with 4:27 to play swelled the L-S lead to four and then consecutive triples extended the margin to 64-55 with less than 4 minutes to play.

“The 3s were huge,” Lowry said. “I was on the bench at the time and I looked down and everyone was yelling after he made those. That gave us some energy for sure.”

Travis scored inside and then canned a 3 to get Baxter to within four with 16.7 seconds left, but Van Vark and Veldhuizen went 3-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final 14.5 seconds to close out the win.

Four Hawks scored in double figures with Veldhuizen and James leading the way with 17 and 15 points, respectively.

“For us, it’s about being strong with the basketball and not turning it over,” Harthoorn said. “We just trust when we have a good shot, whoever that might be, that our guys will knock it down and if they don’t we’ll crash the offensive boards and try to make the next play.”

The Hawks had a 33-23 advantage on the boards and 10 of those came at the offensive end.

L-S also held Dee to 15 points and Sulzle to five points. The duo came into the game averaging 29 and 16 points per game, respectively.

The Hawks defended the Bolts’ two leading scorers with a triangle and two. That freed up Travis to have the best offensive game of his career. He finished with a career-high 23 points.

“We’ve just seen statistically and on film that Dee and Sulzle have been really tough,” Harthoorn said about the defensive decision. “We just thought we’d try to give them extra attention. Give them credit, they had lots of guys who stepped up and made some big shots.

“(Parker) came in and stroked some off the bench. They played well and made it tough on us in that defense so we ended up switching back and forth from that and our traditional man. I don’t know that we really stopped them in either one, but maybe we kept them guessing a little bit.”

Hasselbrink hopes the Bolts have seen it all from a defensive standpoint by the time the postseason rolls around.

Dee has been guarded with a box and one and a 1-3 chaser this year, too.

“They played something we hadn’t seen on film yet,” Hasselbrink said. “In the moment, it’s hard to weather. I thought for not seeing it yet, we weathered it pretty darn well though. They just made a few more buckets down the stretch.”

Dee was being guarded early in the game by his cousin Lowry, who was more aggressive at the offensive end early in the contest.

Lowry finished with 11 points and nine came in the first two quarters.

“I just stopped thinking about it and trusting that I’m a good player, I’m a senior and I can hit the shots when I need to,” Lowry said. “(Our balance) is probably the thing that gives us the best advantage over other teams. Even in practice we get better every day because we’re playing against tough competition in our own teammates.”

Veldhuizen finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, James added 15 points, six rebounds and five assists and Van Vark totaled 11 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Carson Maston chipped in six points and 10 rebounds, while Jack Bowlin grabbed five boards and Connor Deal put in three points off the bench.

The Hawks shot 46 percent from the floor, made 7-of-12 from 3 and hit 6-of-12 from the foul line.

The Bolts were a little better from the floor at 47 percent and hit 8-of-23 from 3. They also connected six times from the foul line. Both teams turned the ball over just seven times.

Travis grabbed three rebounds to go with his 23 points. He was 10-of-15 from the floor.

Dee was held to 15 points, while Sulzle had five points and 11 rebounds.

“For me, going into the game, I just didn’t want to let him get going and get hot from 3,” Lowry said about Dee. “I trusted my teammates behind me to help, and we guarded him well as a team. Holding him to 15 was huge.”

Tuhn totaled seven points and two rebounds, Vansice contributed three points and three boards and Parker chipped in six points and two rebounds off the bench for Baxter.

Notes: Lynnville-Sully is now 6-3 against Baxter since 2018. The Hawks have won five of the last six in the series. ... Baxter has lost six of its last 10 games since starting 5-0.