Hawks survive Bears, move to district final
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| Lynnville-Sully junior Brady Van Wyk fights through BGM defenders down low for a basket in the first quarter of the Hawks’ 41-37 win in a Class 1A District Semifinal Tuesday night in Sully. Van Wyk hit four free throws in the game’s final 30 seconds. (Mike Hockett/Daily News) |
SULLY — Brady Van Wyk had been held scoreless for nearly 26 minutes. But with the game and the season on the line, the Lynnville-Sully junior was straight-up clutch.
In the final 30 seconds of the Hawks’ Class 1A District Semifinal against BGM (Brooklyn) Tuesday night, Van Wyk made two big pairs of free throws and drew a crucial charge foul to enable Lynnville-Sully to prevail in a 41-37 nailbiter in Sully.
“It was pretty crazy out on the court,” said Van Wyk, referring to both school’s raucous crowd’s in the packed gym. “You could hear both sides chanting against each other. It was awesome.”
As loud as the crowd was and as big as the stakes were, neither factor seemed to bother Van Wyk in the game’s most tense moments,. He sank two free throws to give the Hawks a one-point lead with 30 seconds left, and then took a charge from Bears’ senior Jake Flathers under the hoop to give L-S a key extra possession.
“It was game-changing,” Van Wyk said about the play. “I was in the right position at the right time, and he just kind of ran me over.”
With 4.2 seconds left and the Hawks up by two, Van Wyk made two more free throws to seal his team’s 20th win of the season and advance it to the district final.
“I had confidence that they were going in,” he said about going 4-for-4 at the line down the stretch. “We shoot them all the time in practice, so I had a lot of confidence.”
Lynnville-Sully (20-3) will play Gladbrook-Reinbeck (15-8) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Marshalltown, with the winner advancing to Substates.
Having being swept by the Hawks during the regular season in the South Iowa Cedar League, BGM (16-6) gave the L-S one of its toughest games of the season, going back-and-forth with it the entire way and even taking a four-point lead three minutes into the fourth quarter.
But where the underclassmen-led Hawks were clutch when it mattered most, the senior-led Bears were the opposite. BGM made 1-of-7 free throws in the fourth quarter, and that one free throw was its only point in the game’s final five minutes.
“We’ve had quite a bit of experience with that the past couple years, so it’s easy for us to buckle down in the last couple minutes of the game and make some free throws,” said L-S senior Nathan Russell, who led the team with 12 points and nine rebounds. “We had quite a lot of turnovers, but free-throw shooting helped us at the end and that’s probably what got us the win.”
“We’ve played a lot of close games this year. The guys just keep fighting and believing getting it done,” L-S coach Nick Harthoorn added. “They stepped up to the line and believed they could put them in and that’s the kind of approach you need to have.”
Besides the free-throws, it was also a good shooting game from the field for the Hawks. They went 15-of-32 from the floor (47 percent), while BGM made 15-of-48 (31 percent). That disparity allowed L-S to survive going -10 in the offensive rebound battle and -6 in turnovers.
The Bears controlled the early portion of the game, taking leads of 10-5 and 14-8 as its spread-zone defense caused some problems for the Hawks. But sophomore TJ Cunningham got L-S’ offense out of its funk by scoring six points in a 9-0 Hawk run that ended with a steal-and-score from sophomore Darin Hofer to put them up 17-14 midway through the second quarter. A Hofer free-throw, steal-and-score and a Russell three-pointer comprised a 6-0 run later in the quarter that put L-S ahead 23-17, and it went into halftime ahead by four. The Hawks outscored the Bears 13-5 in the second quarter.
“The effort and intensity was exceptional on both ends,” Harthoorn said. “Both teams made everything real tough on the offensive end.”
The second half was even more defensive, with each team scoring only 18 points the rest of the way. They traded scores in the third until BGM started an 11-0 run late in the third, finishing with a Flathers bucket that put the Bears up 36-32 with five minutes to go. It was BGM’s last basket of the game. Russell and Cunningham had back-to-back buckets to tie the game with three minutes left, and a Bears’ free throw with 2:29 remaining was the only score until Van Wyk’s first pair of free throws with 30 seconds left.
With the Hawks leading 39-37, Flathers missed what could have been a game-winning three-pointer with six seconds left, and teammate was fouled on the rebound immediately after. He missed the first of two free throws, and then intentionally missed the second, of Van Wyk grabbed the rebound before icing the game with two more free throws.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” Harthoorn said. “Both teams brought a great crowd tonight. It was a great atmosphere to play in. These are the games that the kids remember for a long time.”
Lynnville-Sully 41, BGM 37
Score by quarter
BGM - 14 5 11 7 — 37
LS - 10 13 9 9 — 41
LS individual stats
Scoring — Nathan Russell 12, TJ Cunningham 8, Darin Hofer 8, Brady Van Wyk 8, Bailee Samson 3, Cale Van Wyk 2. Rebounds — Russell 9, C. Van Wyk 6. Steals — Hofer 3, Cunningham 2, Samson 2
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