Rams advance to semifinals with 64-59 win


Abby Hughes hit 6-of-8 shots and scored 17 points while playing every minute of the Rams' state victory.

Glenwood didn’t get off to the start they wanted but they closed the opening half exactly the way they wanted.

Trailing 19-13 after a bumpy first quarter in the quarterfinals at the Iowa State Girls Basketball tournament, the Rams closed the half on a 20-3 run to take a 35-27 lead into intermission.

That lead would grow to as many 17 in the second half as the Rams held off a furious late Bluejay rally in a 64-59 victory Tuesday at Wells Fargo Arena.

The Rams will play in their third straight state semifinals Thursday at 6:45 against Bishop Heelan (22-2).

Bondurant-Farrar never made it easy for the Rams. They led by as many as eight points in the first quarter as Glenwood struggled to adjust to the Bluejays’ post-heavy offense and a 2-3 zone that often morphed into a sticky 1-3-1 zone.

“They came in focused and ready to go and gave us a big punch early and the girls stayed the course and stuck with the game plan,” said Glenwood coach Brian Rasmussen. “We made some tweaks and we’re able to turn the tables. They certainly didn’t go down without a fight because that quarter, they gave us everything they had to fight back in it.”

The biggest tweak for the Rams was on the defensive end. After opening the game in man-to-man, they switched to a 2-3 zone of their to open the second quarter, clogging the interior passing lanes for the Bluejays post players.

“We disguised our zone a little bit,” Rasmussen said. “It was more effective than our transition man (defense) that we were playing early.”

Glenwood also heated up offensively. The Rams made 8-of-12 shots in the second quarter, including a trio of three-pointers.

Jenna Hopp, who had a team-high 12 points in the first half, helped key the Rams’ second quarter run. Her three-pointer at the halftime buzzer capped a 22-8 second quarter.  

The Rams second half would not shrink below double-digits until five minutes remained in the game. With 6-foot-3 center Brynlee Arnold on the bench with a fourth personal foul, the Bluejays’ post-players went to work. 

All-state center Katelyn Lappe scored six points in a 13-0 Bondurant-Farrar run that trimmed the Rams’ lead to 59-56 with 1:45 to go.

Madison Camden’s two free throws for the Rams pushed the lad by to 61-56 and a Hopp steal led to a Abby Hughes put back to make it 64-56 with 36 seconds to go.

The Bluejays would hit a three with less than a second left but it was too little too late.

Despite the momentum flip and the big stakes, Rasmussen never lost confidence in his team.

“These are 16- and 17-year-old kids playing on a big stage but we do have some experience playing here and we had enough poise at the end to take care of the ball and finish,” Rasmussen said. “We hit some big free throws. We slowed it down a bit but we tried to stay in attack mode. We knew there wasn’t any way they wouldn’t go down without a fight.”

Hopp and Camden each scored 18 points to lead the Rams and Hughes added 17. All three played every minute of the win.

That wasn’t by design, Rasmussen said.

“I gave them opportunities to come out but they politely declined,” Rasmussen said of his three leading scorers. “I think one of our strengths in this game for us was that we could keep our pressure up, keep our transition going and make it a track meet. They are well equipped to play 32 minutes.”

Lappe, a Northern Iowa softball recruit, scored a game-high 19 points but she didn’t get her first points on the night did not score until just 18 seconds remained in the first half. Time and again the quicker Rams cutoff passing lanes and made the 6-foot-1 Lappe have to work for every touch.

“We were excited with how we handled her the first half,” Rasmussen said. “A lot of our focus and defensive prep was to not lot her touch the ball and if she did it wasn’t going to be in the paint and I thought we did a good job of that. She’s a competitor and she got her points but she had to make some great catches to do it.”

The Bluejays close their season with a record of 17-7.

The Opinion-Tribune

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