Rams fall on road at Omaha Skutt
OMAHA - The game matched two teams from two different states for just the second time ever.
No conference standings or post-season seeding were at stake.
Try telling that to the two teams on the court.
Class 3A, No. 6 Glenwood battled Nebraska Class B, No. 6 ranked Omaha Skutt Catholic for the better part of three and a half quarters before falling late in a hard-nosed, slugfest 67-58 loss in a game that had all the atmosphere of the post-season.
Glenwood coach Curt Schulte said the game had a “substate final atmosphere” and while he admitted the loss, just his team’s second of the season, was a tough one, he has no regrets scheduling the interstate match-up.
“This was the reason why Coach (Kyle) Jurgens and I scheduled this game,” Schulte said of the raucous, packed house crowd. “This is a really good game for us with post-season only three weeks away. To play in this atmosphere, to play a team I think can go very deep in the post-season feels very beneficial for us. I think we learned more from this game than we have the last two weeks. We’ll watch film and learn and grow from it and get back to work in practice.”
After early foul trouble slowed their attack, the Rams took a 34-32 lead into halftime, thanks to Nate Mohr’s 14 first half points and 4-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.
But the Rams’ hot shooting didn’t carry into the second half. Glenwood missed its first six shots of the third quarter and turned the ball over three times in the first five minutes.
And the Skyhawks swooped in to take control with an 8-1 run to wrestled 40-35 lead late in the quarter.
For the quarter, Skutt out-scored Glenwood 11-5 and held them to just 2-of-11 shooting to take a 43-39 lead into the fourth.
The two teams traded baskets to open the final frame before the Rams trimmed the lad to 46-44 on a Cody Buresh free throw.
The Skyhawks, however, would answer from behind the arc. In a series of five possessions, Austin Ash hit two three-pointers, Andrew Mertfeld another three and Tyson Gordon a floater to push Skutt’s lead out to 54-44 with just over five minutes to go.
The Rams never quite recovered from the onslaught.
Glenwood’s five points were one off a season-low in scoring for a quarter this season.
“We’re a team that averaged 71 points a game and we just couldn’t hit shots,” Schulte said of his team’s third quarter struggles. “I thought we got some good looks. They are just a tremendous defensive team. We had some shots go in and out and we just couldn’t buy one. And that’s where they regained the momentum and took it into the fourth quarter.”
Andrew Blum, who fought through foul trouble all night, hit a layup and a free throw with 2:05 to go to briefly cut the lead to 59-53. However, that was as close as the Rams would get.
Skutt hit 8-of-10 free throws over the final two minutes to seal the win.
Schulte commended his team’s fight to the end.
“We had to apply some full court pressure and we got a couple steals off that but they are super athletic and they are one of the top teams in Nebraska for a reason,” Schulte said. “They have a nice inside game and some good perimeter players. I thought we battled all the way and we didn’t quit. This was two good teams going at each other tonight.”
Mohr finished with a team-high 22 for Glenwood.
“Nate hit some big shots for us, especially when we had Christian (Stanislav) and (Andrew) Blum go to the bench with foul trouble,” Schulte said. “He really kept us in and got us going in that second quarter,” Schulte said.
Blum chipped in 14 and Stanislav 11.
Ash paced Skutt with 21 points. Gordon added 18.
Glenwood 79,
Clarinda 28
The Glenwood boys basketball team earned its fifth straight win and wrapped up at least a share of the Hawkeye 10 Conference title with a 79-28 rout on the road at Clarinda last Tuesday.
The Rams turned a 11-point lead after a quarter into 47-22 lead at halftime en route to the win.
Glenwood held a dominating 40 to 29 advantage on the boards while defensively limiting Clarinda to six second half points and grabbing 19 steals.
Christian Stanislav paced four Rams in double figures with 19 points. Andrew Blum and Cody Buresh each added 13 points and Nate Mohr chipped in 11.
Nathan Lindsey scored eight points to