Rams win conference opener over Atlantic

John Palmer scored a career-high 22 and Ryan Blum added 26 for Glenwood in a 75-65 win over Atlantic in the Hawkeye 10 Conference boys basketball opener for both teams Friday in Glenwood.

The Rams (2-0 overall, 1-0 in the conference) trailed 20-16 after the first quarter but slowly pulled away. They out-scored the Trojans (0-2 overall, 0-2 in the conference) 25-17 in hot-shooting fourth quarter to secure the victory.

For the game the Rams shot 50 percent from the field (28-of-56), including 9-of-19 from behind the arc. They also out-rebounded the Trojans 32 to 28 and grabbed 16 steals.

Blum led the way with 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-6 from behind the arc. He also pulled down eight rebounds and grabbed four steals.

Palmer hit 9-of-16 shots for his career night. He also grabbed two steals and dished out four assists.

Zach Carr chipped in 16 points and four assists.

Skyler Handlos led Atlantic with 22 points.
    
Glenwood 60,
C.B. Thomas Jefferson 45

If there is one good thing about playing a subpar first half of basketball it’s that there’s always another half of basketball to play.

No more was that more evident than in the Glenwood boys basketball team’s season-opener last Tuesday.

The Rams were plagued by poor shooting and turnovers in an opening half that saw them trail Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson 25-20 at intermission.

In the first four minutes of the third quarter, Glenwood flushed its first half by hitting five straight three-pointers in six possessions and turning up the defensive pressure in a 17-4 run that gave them the lead for good as they cruised to 60-45 victory.

Glenwood coach Curt Schulte said after the game his team got hurried into bad shots and turnovers that first half.

“We needed to slow down, we had too many turnovers,” Schulte said. “A lot of our players didn’t have a lot of varsity experience so there was a lot of nerves and jitters that first half and we had a lot of unforced errors. Once we settled in to things in the second half, we did some good things.”

The Yellowjackets’ 2-3 match up zone gave the Rams trouble early. They missed eight of their first nine shots and turned the ball over nine times in the first quarter.

At halftime Schulte kept his team in the locker room longer than usual. His pep talked seemed to work.

Three-pointers by Palmer and two each by Carr in a span of just over two minutes punctuated a 17-4 Ram run that erased the five point halftime deficit and gave Glenwood an eight point lead. T.J. never got closer than six the rest of the game.

“At halftime we said we need to establish a good first four or five minutes of that third quarter,” Schulte said. “That was going to dictate how the second half was going to go and we came out, hit some big shots and it was good for us.”

Defense helped the Rams turn the tide in their favor after halftime. They limited T.J. to 20 second half points and grabbed 13 steals in the game.

“We funneled them to the left, kept the ball in front of us, forced jumpshots and we didn’t give up easy layups like we did that first half,” Schulte said. “We were much more solid in the second half.”

Blum finished with a game-high 22 points and Carr added 19. Palmer chipped in nine points.

But the Rams struggled to knock down shots for most of the night – they finished 21-of-63 from the field – but Schulte was encouraged by the quality of looks his team got and how well they attacked the glass.

“We missed a lot of shots within five feet, some layups,” he said. “The one thing I was really proud of was that we went to the offensive boards really strong. We had 20 offensive rebounds. That was huge for us.”

Blum grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.