Heartbreaker In Harlan

HARLAN - For the Glenwood boys basketball team, it was déjà vu all over again.

Almost a year to the day since dropping a 73-71 overtime game to Perry one game short of the state tournament, the Rams’ staged a valiant second half comeback only to come up short in a 69-68 loss to Atlantic in the Class 3A, Substate 8 final before an overflow crowd of around 2,000 in Harlan Monday night.

Glenwood coach Curt Schulte said he counts the last two season-ending losses among the toughest as a head coach.

“These last two substate games, this one and Perry, they were tough,” a dejected Schulte said.

“They’re tough to swallow but I’m very blessed with competitors that are great kids and this was a wonderful season, winning 14 out of 15 (to end the season) and winning our fourth straight district title. This game could have gone either way.”

Glenwood had their struggles to open the game, hitting just five of their first 16 shots and seeing leading scorer Nate Mohr miss 9-of-10 first half shots as the Trojans took a 31-23 lead into halftime.

But the Rams – and Mohr – would find their rhythm in the third quarter. A pair of Mohr three pointers and a Christian Stanislav runner gave Glenwood it’s first lead since early in the game at 45-44 with a minute to go in the frame.

“The first half, we had a lot of balls go in and out,” Schulte said. “They were all good shots. But we just couldn’t buy one in the first half. The second half, we hit those. When your offensive confidence is high, your defense is better too. I really thought we played an outstanding second half.”

The two teams would trade the lead nine times over the final nine minutes of the game.

In the fourth, the Trojans slowly began to pull away with Mohr on the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 4:53 to go. A pair of three pointers by Garrett Franken and Chase Mullenix put Atlantic up 60-54 and Schulte couldn’t keep Mohr on the bench any longer.

Glenwood would scramble to play catch up from there. Mohr’s three free throws cut it to 65-62 with 36.5 seconds remaining. Stanislav would nail another three but the Trojans countered by hitting 4-of-6 free throws down the stretch to ice their first state tournament trip since 2002. Mohr’s three pointer cut the lead to one with four seconds left but time ran out as the Trojans inbounded the ball.

Mohr hit all six of his three pointers and scored 24 of his game-high 26 points in the second half.
“Nate’s a gamer,” Schulte said. “He didn’t shoot it well in the first half. The second half he came back and hit big time shots for us. He’s a big time player. He’s kept battling.”

Andrew Blum added 17 for Glenwood and Stanislav chipped in 15.

The Rams lose just one senior off this year’s squad that finished 18-6 and returns it’s top eight scorers. Schulte thinks his team can look at this game and last year’s close substate loss and continue to build on what this program has become.

“We’re right there,” Schulte said. “We’re in that upper echelon of Class 3A teams. We’ve played in four straight substate finals and we’re a play away from state in all of them. This will definitely motivate us going into next season. We didn’t get this one tonight. But we’ll keep climbing the ladder.”

Glenwood 68,
Carroll 53

The Glenwood boys basketball team has followed a simple philosophy in the last half of the season.
Play one game at a time.

That method has served the Rams well in winning 13 of their last 14 games, including Thursday’s 68-53 victory over Carroll in the Class 3A, District 16 championship before a raucous home crowd in Glenwood.

Since defeating first round opponent Denison in the district opener, Glenwood coach Curt Schulte said his team isn’t looking any further than the team they are playing in each post-season game.

“This was a great second step,” said Schulte, whose team has won four straight district crowns. “The kids are ecstatic about winning the district championship. That was a goal. We weren’t focused on anything else but beating Carroll tonight. We know they’re a very good team. They beat Harlan last week. They beat a very good Creston team so we knew we were going to have our hands full.”

With the win Glenwood advanced to meet Atlantic (18-5), a 68-46 winner over A-D-M in the District 13 finals, in the Class 3A, Sub-state 8 finals in Harlan Monday night. The winner will head to the state tournament.

Against Carroll, the Rams lead by as many as 12 in the first half but the Tigers had whittled that lead down to 33-29 by halftime. Carroll then came out and opened the third quarter a quick 5-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 34-33 with 7:01 to go in the frame.

A brief timeout seemed to settle Schulte’s team. A pair of lay ups, sandwiched around a three pointer, all by Ram guard Christian Stanislav keyed a 9-0 run to put the Rams back in front 43-33 with 4:38 to go in the third.

“We came out of halftime a little slow,” Schulte said. “They take the lead and then I thought we responded really well. It started on the defensive end then we hit some clutch shots during that stretch and then we were kind of able to maintain that the rest of the way.”

The Tigers never got closer than nine the rest of the game as the Rams out-scored Carroll 17-12 in the final quarter.

All game long the Rams’ defense, which held the Tigers to nearly 10 points below their offensive scoring average this season and to 5-of-23 from behind the arc, came up big, forcing tough shots and snatching defensive rebounds to set up their offense. Glenwood nearly doubled up the Tigers on the glass, holding a 39 to 20 rebounding edge for the game.

“We’ve been getting better at that all season long,” Schulte said of his team’s rebounding. “That’s where it starts, defense and rebounding. This time of year, you do those two things you always have a shot. I thought tonight we played well in both those categories. “

Nate Mohr led four Rams in double figures with 19 points.  Stanislav added 16 points and nine boards, Andrew Blum had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Nate Kennedy chipped in 14 points and five rebounds.

Kennedy provided a key early spark for the Rams, hitting three first quarter threes and 4-of-7 from behind the arc for the game. Schulte said he thought his junior wing might be in for a big game.

“He was playing with confidence,” Schulte said. “He was feeling it. I noticed in warm ups he was knocking them down and I figured he might knock some big shots down for us and he did. That was awesome to see because those early ones really jump started us.”

Kolby Molinsky paced Carroll with 15 and Cooper Ross added 14.