Rams will play for state title
There will be no "three-peat" for North Scott.
Glenwood set the tone early on the defensive end and ended the Lancers' two year reign as state champions with an impressive 61-48 victory in the girls Class 4A state semifinals at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines tonight.
The win puts the Rams (22-3) into the state finals for the first time in school history. They will play No. 2 seeded Ballard (22-1) in Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. Class 4A finals.
North Scott (16-3) never made is easy but the Rams did look the quicker, more aggressive team on both ends of the court from the opening tip, attacking the Lancer ball handlers with their match-up zone and getting to the offensive glass on the other end in the win.
Glenwood led by seven after a quarter and then turned up the heat in the second frame. A three-pointer by Emma Hughes with :03 left in the half gave the Rams a 32-19 at intermission. The bucket capped a 17-5 quarter for the Rams that saw them take control on the defensive end, limiting the Lancers to 20 percent shooting (2-of-10) while forcing eight turnovers in the frame.
“Holding the two time defending state champs to 13 points in a half was, I’d like to say that’s what we were expecting to do, but that’s what we were hoping to do,” said Glenwood coach Brian Rasmussen. “We certainly wanted to get it done on the defensive end and on the boards and I think we did that and maybe even surprised ourselves a little bit.”
Ashley Fountain, the Lancers' leading scorer, was held scoreless in the first half and second leading scorer Samantha Scott was limited to three first half points on 1-of-10 shooting.
The Rams didn't shoot it great in the first half – 38.9 percent – and were just 2-of-12 on three's but they dominated the points in the paint (22 to 4) and on the boards (24 to 14).
But North Scott wasn’t quite prepared to throw in the towel just yet.
They hit three three-pointers in a span of two minutes and rattled off a 13-5 run to cut the Rams’ lead to 38-26 with 4:33 to go. But the Rams would weather that storm and go on a 15-4 run to close out the quarter with a commanding 53-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Rasmussen knew the Lancers wouldn’t go away and talked to his team at halftime about not getting complacent and playing with poise. He thought they did that at times but he does seem some takeaways from North Scott’s attempted comeback.
“I think we, I wouldn’t say we lost our poise, but when you’re up big like that, even though we talk about staying focused and playing every single possession, it’s still hard to do,” he said. “You start to tighten up a little bit when they have back to back buckets and we kind of fumbled around and had a few turnovers and the energy kind of shifted a little bit and I think we did a good job of making enough shots and getting enough stops to not let that ride the entire second half.”
The Rams certainly didn’t. Their lead topped out at 27 points in the fourth quarter before the Lancers hit some late three’s and actually out-scored Glenwood 18-8 in the final quarter.
Rasmussen wasn’t happy with his teams finishing but if he’s far from concerned.
“There are good takeaways from it and we’re going to ride off our first half efforts and learn from some of the things that occurred in the second half and we’re going to be a better basketball team come Saturday.”
Glenwood shot 44.2 percent for the game – 23-of-52 – but more importantly held a good shooting Lancer team to 29.6 percent shooting including 10-of-32 from behind the arc while holding a 40 to 28 rebounding edge.
Jenna Hopp was big for the Rams all night. The sophomore finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds. She also had three steals and three assists.
“She plays hard every night,” Rasmussen said of Hopp. “She probably gets keyed on more than anybody else. But we’ve got a lot of kids that can score and put the ball up and she certainly doesn’t have it easy on any particular night. I think she did a good job of not forcing or pushing – there was an occasion here and there – but for the most part she didn’t push herself or felt like she had to throw it on her shoulders to make it happen. She played together, we played as a team, and she took the role of just kind of being a beast out there with her defense and her rebounding energy tonight.”
Abby Hughes (11 points), Madison Camden (11) and Emma Hughes (10) joined Hopp in double figures. It’s the second straight game at state the Rams have had four players score 10 or more.
The semifinals win is a vindication of sorts for the Rams. One year ago they lost in the same round to Council Bluffs Lewis Central. Getting past the semifinals and in a position to play for a state title is just one goal that came out of that devastating loss.
“That was the only thing we focused on this season,” said Abby Hughes. “From the minute that buzzer went off last year, that’s what we’ve wanted.”
The Rams get that chance Saturday in a historic moment – for both the Glenwood girls’ program and their head coach, who has never played or coached in a championship game.
“This will be a first,” he said. “But we’re ready for it.”