Rams fall 65-40 in state opener
DES MOINES - In its historic post-season run, the Glenwood boys basketball team rallied three times over favored opponents to reach the state tournament.
Tuesday, in its first state tournament appearance in 63 years, the Rams dug themselves a hole they couldn’t dig out of.
Top-seeded Williamsburg sprinted out to a 13-2 lead and never let Glenwood back in the game in a 65-40 victory in the quarterfinals at the Iowa State Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.
“This wasn’t our best played game of the year but you know what? These kids have battled all year long,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte. “They’ve shown a lot of heart getting here. We fought tooth and nail through the post-season to get here. Unfortunately, we didn’t play one of our better games tonight and that’s the way the chips fall sometimes.”
Spotting the Raiders (24-1) an early 8-0 lead, Glenwood missed its first eight shots and turned the ball over five times in the opening six minutes to get down 11 points. Some early jitters likely played a factor in the Rams’ struggles, said Schulte.
“We tried to do the best we could with focus, but there were some nerves,” Schulte said. “Anytime you get into a venue like this in a state appearance there’s going to be a little bit of nerves. It’s just tough for these kids.”
In the second quarter, Glenwood seemed to settle down on both ends of the court. Trailing 18-8, the Rams’ used a pair of steals on the defensive end that led to back-to-back three pointers by Nate Mohr to trim the lead to 18-14 with 5:59 to go before halftime. But, after a timeout, Williamsburg would respond with 12-3 run to go up 30-17 at the half.
Raider guard Adam Klein singled handedly out-scored the Rams 19-17 in the first half and some might say shot the lights out, literally and figuratively. With 56.1 to go in the half a power failure in Wells Fargo Arena caused the lights to go out. After a brief delay, the lights were restored and the game resumed. Klein finished 6-of-8 from the field in the first half, including 3-of-3 on three’s.
“He’s such a solid player,” Schulte said of Klein who finished with a game-high 29 points. “He hit some bombs in the first half. We knew he was a good player coming in. We didn’t defend him as well as we’d have liked. He’s one of the finer players we’ve seen this year.”
Raiders coach Dave Schlabaugh said a quick start was key to slowing the upstart Rams and getting control early.
“We were hoping for a good start,” Schalbaugh said. “You want to come out and shoot like that. We talked about how good of a team this was, any time you beat a Mitch Osborne Harlan team, you’re good. We really felt if we set the tone early, especially on the defensive end, we’d have a good chance and we did that.”
Trailing by 13 at the half, Schulte talked to his team about chipping away but after briefly cutting the Raiders’ margin to nine points in the third quarter, Glenwood never got any closer. Williamsburg’s lead swelled to as many as 27 down the stretch.
“We battled back in it and even at halftime, being down 13, I felt we’re still in it. We needed a big run and a strong third quarter,” Schulte said. “And I think we played them pretty even that quarter and then they hit a couple big shots and extended that gap to 18 or 19 and it was tough to get back from that.”
Schulte was proud of his team for fighting to the very end and the leadership of his six seniors – starters Jacob Lewis, Dylan Stouder, Wyatt Schulz, Ridge Fisher, Ryan Phillips and James Fuller, who sat out most of his senior season with a leg injury.
“This is a special group of seniors,” he said. “They’ve broken the ice to get to the state tournament, it’s been 63 years. We’ve been close, losing in last year’s substate final and this year getting here. They’ve laid the foundation and this is something we can continue to do (get to state).”
More than a 1,000 Glenwood fans made the trek to Des Moines for the school’s first boys state tournament game in more than six decades. Schulte said fan support all season has been great. The coach just wished his team could have given the Ram fans some more to cheer about.
“We would have loved to have been playing in the state semifinals Thursday night, there’s no doubt about that,” Schulte said. “We packed thinking we’d be here until Saturday. It wasn’t in the cards but I couldn’t be more proud of our players and coaching staff and the community. We had a great pep rally this morning and a parade going out of town.
“The support has been awesome. We wish we could have won tonight for the community. Hopefully, we just got a taste this year and we can continue it next year and get here on a regular basis.”
Glenwood (12-13) 7 10 10 13 - 40
Williamsburg (24-1) 18 12 12 23 - 65
G: Wyatt Schulz 5, Ryan Phillips 5, Ridge Fisher 0, Dylan Stouder 4, Jake Lewis 4, Nate Mohr 9, Drake Harrington 0, Andrew Blum 7, Carter Von Essen 2, Aaron Bertini 2, Connor Weis 2.
W: Zach Schlabaugh 6, Josh Koeppel 9, Adam Klein 29, Jackson Subbert 2, Brady Stewart 2, Derek Greiner 6, Noah Heitshusen 0, Ben Subbert 2, Dylan Miller 0, Allyn Francis 4, Jackson Culp 3, Declan Broeg 2, Andrew Gragg 0.