Rams make ‘strides’ in 73-51 win

Glenwood used a 20-11 third quarter run to turn a 12-point lead into a rout and improve to 2-0 on the season with a 73-51 victory over Creston in a boys non-conference basketball tilt Friday in Glenwood.

Glenwood coach Curt Schulte, who was critical of his team’s defensive effort in the season-opening victory over Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday, said he saw his team improve from game one to game two.

“I thought we took big strides, big steps forward from Tuesday’s game to Friday,” Schulte said. “I thought our defensive effort was much better and we rebounded the ball much better. We out-rebounded them (Creston) by 12.”

The Rams were in a tussle much of the first half with the Panthers, who were playing their season-opener, before they closed the half with a 12-point lead.

In the third quarter, the Rams began to really pull away. They out-scored the Panthers 20-11 in the frame and led comfortably 57-36 heading into the final quarter

“I thought we got a quick start that first four or five minutes of the third quarter,” Schulte said. “A fast start coming out in the third quarter is always good and we jumped on them and did a good job of getting the momentum going our way.”

Schulte said his team’s sharper focus on defense was evident in their limiting dynamic Creston scorer Kylan Smallwood to 17 points on 7-of-18 shooting. The senior wing averaged a Hawkeye 10 Conference leading 22.4 points per game last season.

“He’s a tremendous player and overall athlete,” he said. “I thought we did a great job on him. We ran three guys at him – Ryan Blum, Ryan Leath and Zach Carr – and they obviously did a good job on him. We wanted to get him tired, deny him the ball and we tried to limit his touches. That was really beneficial for us.”

Christian Stanislav led the a balanced Ram attack with a game-high 29 points. The senior, who scored a career-high 34 in the season-opener, also became the fourth Glenwood boys basketball player to surpass 1,000 career points in the win.

“Christian has played really well these first two games,” Schulte said. “He’s been a great team player and he’s taking good shots. He’s also improved a lot on the defensive end a lot. He’s also been rebounding well. He’s had a great start. We hope it keeps rolling.”

Blum added 18 and Zach Carr 13 for the Rams.

Brance Baker paced Creston with 21 points.

Glenwood 74,
C.B. Thomas Jefferson 52

A sluggish first half gave way to a lively second half in Glenwood’s season opener last Tuesday.

The Rams muddled to a 28-20 halftime lead then scored 46 points after halftime, with career-high scoring nights from Christian Stanislav and Ryan Blum, in a 74-52 victory over Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson.

“I felt the first half, we had some jitters; some of these kids are in different roles this year and we have some new faces,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte. “We’re going to continue to gel. I thought our second half was much better than our first. We out-rebounded them and our defense was a lot better. We have a long way to go on the defensive end but we’ll get there.”

Glenwood looked out of synch on both ends of the floor much of the first half as they tried to shake off the first game rust and fired up Yellowjacket squad.

The Rams led for  much of the first half and limited T.J. to just 20 first half points but they couldn’t pull away. After back-to-back layups to draw with in two in the second quarter, Schulte reluctantly pulled his team out of their full court press and half court man-to-man, going instead to a trapping 1-2-2 zone.

“We had to change things up,” he said. “We were just getting beat too much on dribble penetration. They were sending cutters through and we were trailing cutters. Those are things we have to clean up in practice and get better at.

Things did in deed get better for the Rams in the second half.

After pushing their lead to nine to close the third quarter, the Rams opened the fourth on a 13-2 to put the Yellowjackets away.

Zach Carr’s three-pointer and eight straight points from Stanislav keyed the run that gave Glenwood its biggest lead of the game to that point at 58-41 with just under seven minutes to go.

Following a T.J. timeout, a steal by Blum would lead to a layup that he was fouled on. His subsequent free throw put the Rams up 64-43 and firmly in control.

Stanislav and Blum combined for 56 of the Rams’ 74 points. 

Stanislav scored a career-best 34 points. Ten of his game-high night came in the final frame.

Blum poured in 22 points for his career-high.

“Those two camp up big,” Schulte said of Blum and Stanislav. “They can shoot. You give them room, they’re going to knock down shots. I’m real proud of them. They were hot tonight.”

Cameron Lukavsky paced Thomas Jefferson with 17 points.