L-S boys edged by No. 2 Madrid in district championship

DES MOINES — Madrid is the only undefeated team left in Class 1A. The No. 2 Tigers average 80 points per game and are outscoring opponents by 37 per contest this winter.

None of that mattered when they faced Lynnville-Sully in the 1A District championship game on Tuesday.

The Hawks responded to Madrid’s initial punch in the mouth with a strong second and third quarter, but the Tigers were a little too much in the end during a 50-46 victory on the John Carle Court inside the Bowen Roundhouse Arena on the campus of Des Moines Lincoln High School.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Lynnville-Sully head boys basketball coach Nick Harthoorn said. “They could have easily backed down and just a accepted it. Madrid is a great team. We got down early, but they fought back and made it interesting. We gave ourselves a chance.”

The four-point loss was the second closest margin of defeat by a Madrid opponent this season.

And the Hawks held the Tigers to a season low in points by 10. They’ve only been held to fewer than 70 points six times this winter.

“We stressed team defense this week. It’s not just one guy with them,” Harthoorn said. “They have five guys who can score. You can’t just hug everywhere. You have to play great team defense, and that’s what our guys did.”

Madrid (24-0) scored the first nine points of the game and led 11-4 and 13-5 at two different points in the first quarter.

But Will Van Vark and Carson Maston combined to score the Hawks’ seven points and they trailed 15-7 after one.

The best players on the floor for L-S were Maston and Dawson James. Both players scored a team-high 15 points in the game and their back-to-back buckets to begin the second closed the gap to 15-11.

Another 5-0 run that included baskets inside by Hendrick Lowry and Cameyon James melted the margin to 17-16, but the Tigers ended the half on a 9-4 run and led by six at the break.

“Our guys played with a lot of toughness and competed on every single possession,” Harthoorn said. “We communicated well and rotated well. Of course they didn’t shoot as well as they’d like. But we would have liked to make a few more 3s as well. Neither team shot it very well tonight.”

The two teams combined to make only 4-of-32 from 3-point range. The Hawks were 1-of-16.

The only L-S triple came from Connor Deal, whose shot from long range got the Hawks (18-6) within 36-35 late in the third.

Before that, James hit a fadeaway and scored inside and four straight from Maston tied the game at 28-all.

It stayed close the rest of the way as neither team led by more than six. The Hawks took a 38-36 lead going into the final frame. The Deal 3 started a 6-0 run that featured two free throws from Maston and one freebie from Deal, who scored five points and grabbed two rebounds off the bench.

“He’s just continued to grow for us,” Harthoorn said about Deal. “He’s getting better and better on the defensive end of the floor and that has allowed us to play him. He can give us a spark offensively with this length and his ability to shoot from outside.”

The fourth quarter belonged to all-state wing Toryn Severson though.

He came into the game averaging around 24 points per game. The Hawks held him to 18 but seven of those came in the fourth and 11 were scored in the second half.

Brody Buck, who had 15 points and nine rebounds in the win, tied the game with a jumper and then gave Madrid a two-point lead with a pair of free throws.

That set up Severson’s big stretch. After making 1-of-2 at the free-throw line, Severson pushed the Tigers’ advantage to 46-40 with a 3.

Dawson James answered with a three-point play at the other end, but another 3 by Severson swelled Madrid’s lead back to six. And L-S never got closer than four the rest of the way.

Madrid finished 3-of-16 from 3, but Severson made two big ones when his team needed them the most. The Tigers outscored the Hawks 14-8 in the fourth.

Maston and James both had 15 points and nine rebounds to lead the Hawks, and Maston added two blocks.

“Both of our posts went right at them,” Harthoorn said. “Dawson has good size but they had the length. He’s getting better and better at finding ways to score around the length. Carson had some great moves and great drop steps. It was fun to watch those two play.”

Van Vark chipped in seven points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals and Sawyer Veldhuizen dished out three assists. Lowry pitched in two assists and two steals.

Veldhuizen averaged 11 points per game this winter and shot 44 percent from 3 but did not score in the loss.

The Hawks shot 38 percent from the floor but stayed in the game with a 13-of-18 performance from the free-throw line. They also only committed nine turnovers.

The biggest statistical advantage for the Tigers came on the glass. Madrid out-rebounded Lynnville-Sully 42-29, and the Tigers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.

A lot of those came in the first, but the Tigers did grab a few late in the game when L-S was trying to close the gap in the final minute.

Lynnville-Sully, which was playing in its fourth straight district championship game, also turned the ball over down three points with 12.4 seconds to play.

“Madrid shoots it so well so you can’t afford to give a team like that multiple attempts,” Harthoorn said. “Giving them second opportunities is not going to end well. Those two bigs are physical and they attack the glass. They made it tough on us. Looking back on things, if we could have cleared a few more boards, that might be the difference, but I’m not going to fault our guys too much.”

Madrid’s two bigs are 6-foot-5 freshman Jevyn Severson and 6-6 Emerson Bridgewater. Jevyn Severson had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double and Bridgewater grabbed 13 boards.

Notes: The Hawks have registered at least 18 wins in four straight seasons. They’ve had 18-plus wins 15 times since 2006-07. … This group of Madrid seniors have gone 68-6 the past three seasons. They’ll play Ankeny Christian Academy (17-7) in the substate final at Drake University at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Des Moines. The Tigers defeated ACA by three on Jan. 6. That’s Madrid’s closest margin of victory this season. ... Lynnville-Sully will lose Maston, Lowry, Terran Gosselink and Kellan Hill to graduation.