By Becky Walz,
They left it all on the court.
After barely escaping Clayton Ridge the first round of the postseason in overtime, the South Winn boys’ basketball team survived the next three contests to make school history. For the first time since 1987, the Warriors made an appearance at the state tournament, meeting top-ranked North Linn in the quarterfinals Monday morning.
With fans spaced out and masked, the crowds were slightly quieter than normal as the Warrior faithful made the trip to Des Moines to watch South Winn battle it out with the Lynx, falling 77-52.
The Warriors close the year 18-7.
“I told the guys last week, it was March and we are still practicing and preparing for games and that’s a pretty special thing. I hope it is something the guys will remember, and it’s been a joy to be a part of it. This group is special to me because we weren’t always the flashiest — we played defense, had fourth quarter comebacks, had overtime games. We weren’t a high-scoring team, but we were a team that went out and played well together as the season went along. The guys really gelled at the right time and the belief is the reason we are here, and I am proud of them,” said Coach Blake Moen.
Proud of you
South Winn came out unsure of what the Lynx attack would be. After North Linn won the tip-off and missed a jumper, senior Collin Wiltgen grabbed the defensive rebound and tossed the ball ahead to Jacob Herold. With the shot just off the mark, Wiltgen was there for the board and put-back to give the Warriors their only lead of the game. From there, the Lynx hit shot after shot going up 26-17 after the first quarter.
North Linn scored the first points of the second period; however, the Warriors’ Trey Kriener put down a three-pointer to close the gap to 29-20 with 6:52 left before the half. A steal by Herold led to an easy Carson Wenthold lay-up to bring the Warriors within seven, 29-22 with 6:12 on the clock. After Keagen Streeter added a lay-up at the 4:50 mark, South Winn suffered a scoring drought that lasted two and a half minutes. A Wiltgen free throw broke the scoring as Streeter put up a jumper to finish the half, leaving SW trailing 43-27 at the half.
It was the Lynx on the board first in the second half before Herold found Wenthold beyond the arc for a three. Herold added a pair of free throws before NL added a trey to its tally with 5:41 to play. Both teams failed to find the hoop for more than three minutes when North Linn’s Kaleb Kurt nailed a trey. It took until the 1:25 mark before South Winn broke through to score on a Streeter trey. The third period finished out with a short jumper by Herold as SW trailed 59-37 with eight minutes to play.
The South Winn offense continued to fight in the final period, putting up 15 points, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Lynx. With 1:54 to play, both benches retired their starters as North Linn led 72-50. With several shots put up in the closing minutes, the final tally came from SW senior Logan Baumler just inside the three-point line with 12 ticks on the clock.
“I give North Linn a lot of credit; they run such a good speed that is hard to mimic in practice. We were able to stay with them in the early part of the game, but it’s hard to practice and prepare for. We out-rebounded North Linn and that’s big. Coming to the state tournament has always been a goal, I am so happy for the team. What a great arena and atmosphere,” said Coach Moen.
Players’ thoughts
“This is where I wanted to end my basketball career and has been a lifelong goal. We are a close group and more of a family than a team. There isn’t a guy in the locker room that wouldn’t do something for one another. Coming into the season, we had it in the back of our mind that we could make it to the state tournament,” said senior Jacob Herold. “We had a rough start to the season and got kind of down on ourselves. Though we had experience coming back, we really hadn’t played together so it took a while for us to gel, but we always believed we could make it to Des Moines.”
Junior Trey Kriener added, “Coach T (Derek Taylor) talked about us making it to substate and state as our goal. It means a lot to the community and the journey has been a lot of fun. In preparation for the game, North Linn looked a lot slower on film and their speed was hard to simulate in practice, but our scout team did a good job trying.”
Brief stats
Jacob Herold ended his career with 15 points, along with two rebounds, four assists and two steals. Trey Kriener had 12 points, seven boards and three blocks. On the board with eight points apiece were sophomores Carson Wenthold and Keagen Streeter. Wenthold added two assists, one rebound and one block, while Streeter had two boards. Senior Collin Wiltgen wrapped up his career with seven points and seven boards. Logan Baumler was also on the board with two points. Cael Kuboushek added two rebounds, one assist and one steal, while Dominic Sisneros had two boards.
Graduating after this history-making season will be Herold, Wiltgen, Kuboushek, Sisneros, Baumler, Brandon Frana and Ethan Luzum.
Submit A Comment
Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.