South Tama’s Justus Ward and Lane Koch scramble for the ball to try and keep it out of the reach of a Newton defender. The STC Trojans fell to Newton 70-52 on Monday, February 21 in the first round of Districts. News Herald Photo/Allison Graham

Whether it be from the post or the perimeter the Newton Cardinals’ shooting was on point against the Trojans. South Tama traveled to Newton to take on the Cardinals from the Little Hawkeye Conference on Monday, February 22 for the first round of boys basketball districts. Newton came out the victors 70-52 and will move on to Round 2 to play Grinnell on Thursday.

Newton entered the contest 14-8 however four of those losses were to Pella and Norwalk. Pella is the reigning state Class 3A championship team and is 20-1 this season. Norwalk sits just under Pella in the Little Hawkeye Conference at No. 2 and is 16-6. Two of Norwalk’s losses have been to high profile teams including Pella. With a solid regular season behind them the Cardinals kept the train moving against a Trojan (6-15) team that has struggled throughout most of the season.

Four of Newton’s five starters including Jwan Roush, Joe Canfield, Connor Gholson and Josh Ventling were also upperclassmen and provided an edge of experience over the Trojans younger squad. Starting for the Trojans were Clayton Rosenberger, Gabe Shields, Triston Lasley, Lane Koch and Wade Brown.

For the most part the Trojans kept pace with Cardinals. Although they trailed the entire evening, the first half was a close contest. But every time the Trojans got within striking distance the Cardinals had an answer that kept STC on their heels.

Newton displayed excellent timing on the offensive end and seemed to cutting to the hoop and jumping for rebounds and just the right time. They knew just when to pull back and wait for STC to make a defensive move. More often than not it resulted in points for the Cardinals. When the Trojans were able to close out the lane Newton was able to connect from outside. Sturtz, Gholson and Trey Vanderlaan each contributed with points beyond the arc. Gholson led the team with 18 points while Sturtz had 17. Newton also out rebounded the Trojans 24-20.

When the end of the fourth quarter came along, Burdette Brown subbed in some of STC’s reserve players. Senior Harley Matta came off the bench and ignited the Trojans’ spirit a bit with a quick bucket. Riley Davenport led the Trojans in scoring with 11 points. Lane Koch had the most rebounds for the Trojans with 5.

“I think as a whole we came out and gave everything we had tonight,” said Brown, “I think the kids played as hard as they could possibly play and that’s a very fast and very good team. We shut down two of their scorers but other kids picked it up for them. We tried to stop their best players and we did that for the most part. We did pretty good inside tonight but we needed our perimeter game to be just as good.”

South Tama finishes their season having overcome several obstacles. It is no secret that the majority of the squad is young. STC was also missing one of its key players, Darius Lasley-Shields, all season due to an injury. It was also the first season for coach Burdette Brown. The good news is that the Trojans can put a year of experience under their belts. They look to return a good portion of the team next year. The varsity experience for the group of sophomores will only help them to improve for next year’s season.

“We’ve got all but three of those kids returning so we are going to be very tough next year,” said Brown. “The interior passing tonight was just phenomenal and we will see more of that next year.”