Rams topple Cyclones, 64-53

    Big wins don’t come much bigger than this.
    Leading 29-28 at halftime, Glenwood used a 17-10 third quarter run to pull away from Harlan and never relinquished the lead in a 64-53 win over the Cyclones. The win was the first for Glenwood coach Curt Schulte over his alma mater, and the Rams’ first victory over the Cyclones since 1995.

    “All wins are good,” Schulte said after the game. “Any time you can beat a perennial power like Harlan, it’s big. We’ve come awfully close a few times but tonight we sealed the deal.”
    Schulte said he started to see the light go on for his team right before the holiday break in close losses to Kuemper Catholic and Clarinda. That carried over through some strong practices during the break and culminated in Tuesday’s win.
    “We had some great practices over break and a couple great scrimmages over St. Albert and Logan-Magnolia. The kids felt really good about coming into tonight,” Schulte said.
    The two teams traded leads for much of the first half with neither team leading by more than three points. Glenwood led 29-28 at intermission.
    The Rams got a three pointer from Grant Stivers and a three-point play and a pair of free throws by J.J. Hahn to extend their lead to 37-30 early in the third quarter. Grant May’s runner pushed the lead to double-digits at 41-31 with 3:56 remaining.
    With 6-foot-7 Seth Lansman and 6-foot-5 Trey Lansman on the bench with four fouls each, Glenwood went to work. Jones nailed two free throws and Stivers followed with a three to push the lead back to 51-40 with seven minutes to go in the game.
    But the Cyclones wouldn’t go away, using their full court pressure to force Glenwood out of its slow-down tempo.
    The plan worked. Three-pointers by Adam Juhl and Nate Kloewer trimmed the lead to six with just over five minutes to go.
    Schulte called a time out to calm and re-group his team.
    And it worked.
    A pair of Grant May free throws and another Hahn layup pushed the lead back to 10 at 56-46 with 3:29 to go. The Cyclones would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
    Glenwood went 6-for-6 at the free throw line down the sterch to ice the win.
    “We worked on handling pressure all break, we worked on our delay game all through break,” Schulte said of his team’s handling the Cyclone pressure. “I always tell the kids how you practice is how you play in games. It all translates. And tonight it did.”
    Harlan held a 30-28 rebounding edge, but Glenwood limited the bigger Cyclones’ second chance opportunities.
    “We knew that would be key,” Schulte said. “They go 6-foot-7, 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-5 across the front line, so we knew had to put bodies on people and we did for the most part. We rebounded extremely well, we shot 22-of-27 from the free throw line and that was huge too, especially down the stretch.”
    The Ram defense bottled up Cyclone leading scorer Zach Osborn, who entered the game averaging 16.3 points per game. The senior guard got his points  but 15 of his 19 points came at the free throw line on a cold shooting night.
    Stivers led four Rams in double-figures with 16 points. Hahn added 15, Corey Bertini 13 and May 11. Jones chipped in with seven points and four blocked shots. Schulte called the win the Rams’ most complete victory of the season.
    “Not only did the top eight contribute tonight, the whole team played well,” Schulte said. “There was tremendous energy on the bench and whenever you get that kind of balanced scoring, you’re tough to beat.”
    Glenwood improves to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the Hawkeye 10 Conference.

Glenwood 61,
Shenandoah 20
    A stifling defensive effort lifted Glenwood to a 61-20 victory over Shenandoah on Friday.
    Drew Bayless and Josh Dudled combined to score 19 of the Mustangs season-low 20 points.