Heelan ends Rams’ season in regional semifinals

SIOUX CITY – Sioux City Bishop Heelan used a mix of defenses and an aggressive offensive attack to open the game on an 18-5 run and cruised to a 60-20 victory to end the Rams’ season Saturday in the Class 4A, Regional semifinals in Sioux City.

The Rams (8-14) never got on track offensively as the Crusaders built a 32-10 halftime lead.

“They do a really good job of mixing up their defenses and we just never found a rhythm,” said Glenwood coach Katy Bowen. “We tried to adjust – we didn’t want to change too much – with our offense a little bit to their two-three zone and the adjustments we made didn’t pan out particularly well. We just couldn’t find any offensive rhythm.”

Brooklyn Taylor’s seven points led the Rams.

Katelyn Stanley scored 18 points to lead Heelan.

The Rams say goodbye to three seniors in Nicole Schuppan, Sidney Lucy and Savanna Mixan.

“They’re a very positive group of kids that came to practice everyday who were team oriented,” Bowen said. “They left their mark on the program in that way.”

Glenwood will return four starters and its top reserve next season.

Glenwood 59,
Harlan 56
HARLAN - Glenwood’s Danielle Hardcastle is routinely the smallest player on the court.

But when it comes to big shots, the 5-foot-2 junior guard didn’t shy away when the moment presented itself.

Hardcastle’s three-pointer with 18.2 seconds left on the clock broke a tie game and proved the difference as the Rams out-lasted Harlan 59-56 in the Class 4A, Region 8 opener in Harlan last Thursday.

“She’s the smallest girl out there and she has the biggest heart of anyone out there on that court,” said Glenwood Coach Katy Bowen said of Hardcastle. “She really wants to be out there. She loves playing the game. I’m super-proud of her effort tonight. I’ve pushed her a lot this season to get better in a lot of ways and challenged her and she certainly has risen to the challenge.”

The Rams opened the game strong, hitting 6-of-9 three-pointers in a 10 minute stretch of the first half that saw them take a 28-13. The lead would shrink to 32-23 by intermission but Glenwood appeared in control.

Harlan changed all that almost immediately to open the third quarter.

Lexi Holloway’s three-pointer less that three minutes into the frame capped a 10-0 run to give the Cyclones their first lead of the game at 33-32.

Harlan’s streak would stretch to a 13-0 run and a 36-32 lead before Hardcastle knocked down a three-pointer with 4:15 to go.

The Rams turned the ball over five times and went 0-of-6 from the field before Hardcastle’s triple.

The Cyclones’ run was eerily reminiscent of the comeback the waged on the Rams in a 48-44 win 10 days earlier.

Bowen said she felt like her team took their foot off the gas and the Cyclones took advantage.

“That happened a lot to us this season and what we did was fold,” she said. “We talked about that all season long and in the huddle. We said, ‘This is our time. We need to keep our composure. We have the experience and we need to hang on.’”

The Rams would respond to Bowen’s pep talk by out-scoring the Cyclones 10-5 over the final 2:41 of the quarter to take a 44-41 margin into the final frame.

After Harlan’s Chloe Hansen knotted the score at 44-44 less than 30 seconds into the fourth, the two teams would trade the lead three more times before the Rams looked like they might pull away.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Joslyn Lewis put the Rams up 54-49 just under two minutes to go.

But the Cyclones wouldn’t go away so easily.

Three pointers by Nicole Lange and Lexie Holloway gave Harlan the lead right back at 55-54 with 1:01 to go.

A pair of free throws by Elle Scarborough and 1-of-2 trip to the line by the Cyclones’ Holloway left the score knotted – for the fourth time in the frame – at 56-56 with :29.6 to go.

Bowen called a timeout to settler her team and set up the potential game-winning shot.

After a few passes on the perimeter as the clock ticked, Hardcastle saw her defender playing a step off and the junior stepped into a rhythm, game-winning jumper.

“All season long it felt like we were in control of a lot of games and couldn’t pull them out and I kept telling the girls, ‘That experience we’re getting is going to pay off,” Bowen said. “I think coming out in that second half we kind of got back on our heels for a little bit. But we hit some big shots down the stretch. Jocelyn hit a couple and then Danielle’s at the end. We hit big shots and we finished.”

Hardcastle’s shot came as somewhat of a surprise to her coach. Not that she took it, more the timing, the coach said.

“We were supposed to hold for the last shot,” Bowen said. “But you know what, it’s a good shot if it goes in and it’s a bad shot if it doesn’t go in. It ended up being a good shot for us.”
Bowen said her team has grown a lot in the last two weeks. The seeds of the win over Harlan perhaps being planted in the Rams’ 43-32 upset win over Denison in the regular-season finale.

“We showed we could withstand a run in the fourth quarter,” Bowen said of where her team learned about itself in the win. “It was big mental challenge for us and I think all the experience we built up in those games paid off. I think the Denison win got us over that hump and now we have the confidence that we can do it.”

Two weeks the Cyclones employed a “box-and-one” defense that had a defender denying Scarborough, the Rams’ leading scorer the ball most of the night and holding her to five points on 2-of-8 shooting. In regionals, the Rams, and Scarborough, looked prepared in regionals. Scarborough finished with 12 points.

“She was more aggressive,” Bowen said. “We were prepared for it having seen in the last time and I think everyone else was prepared to step up too.”