Rams improve to 13-3 with win at Nebraska Prep Classic

Glenwood’s Jack Johnson scored six points and dished out a season-high 11 assists in the win over Red Oak.
Glenwood picked up its sixth win in its last seven games with a 69-60 win over Malcom, Neb. in the Nebraska Prep Classic at the D.J. Sokol Arena on the campus of Creighton University Saturday in Omaha.
The Rams (13-3 overall, 7-2 in the conference) were led by Ayden Gibson’s 31 points.
Carson Frank led Malcom (8-6) with 17 points.
Glenwood 75,
Red Oak 41
Glenwood turned up the defense pressure and used a 22-1 run that bridged the second and third quarters to pull away from Red Oak for a 75-41 win in Hawkeye 10 Conference boys basketball Friday.
After closing the half on a 9-1 run the Rams opened the third quarter on a 13-0 run to take control for good.
“I really felt the second half, we came out with really good defensive intensity,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte after the game. “We got stops which results in transition points for us and then we heated up from the perimeter. I think for the most part, it was a complete 32-minute win.”
The Tigers (5-10 overall, 1-6 in the conference) got off to a slow start, trailing 23-12 after a quarter but appeared to get things figured out in the second quarter. They used a 10-0 run to trim a Glenwood lead that had reached 16 all the way down to 27-24 with just over two minutes to go in the half. Red Oak had a chance to tie up the game, but a three-pointer rattled out and the Rams responded to score nine of the final 10 points of the half.
“They’re so long,” said Red Oak coach Ron DeVries. “They tipped so many passes. I think if we go back and look, I bet they tipped 70 percent of our passes. We scrambled the whole night. I did think we played well there for a stretch in the first half. We were down 11 or 12 and we’d given up 13 uncontested points and came back a little bit. Our game plan and effort were there in first half, we just ran out of gas.”
The Rams run right out of halftime gave them a 60-33 cushion headed into the final frame. Their defense never let the Tigers settle in.
“Coming out of the locker room like that, it got away from us,” DeVries said. We knew the first three minutes (of the third quarter) were going to be the tale of the game and it was.”
Schulte felt his team’s offense was good, but it was the defensive end that impressed him the most.
“We used out length tonight,” he said. “We did a good job keeping everybody in front of us. We got some deflections with our length. Our closeouts were really good on defense too. We didn’t give them many clean looks.”
The Rams shot a blistering 55.4 percent from the field – 31-of-56 – for the game with 11 of those made buckets coming from behind the arc. They also notched assists on 22 of their 31 made field goals.
“Good things happen when you move the ball,” Schulte said. “You get ball reversals, inside touches and kickbacks to the outside. I was really proud overall of how we played on offense.”
Ayden Gibson led the Rams with 17 points. Colin Steele added 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting from behind the arc and Cole Staudt chipped in 10 points. Jack Johnson had six points to go with a season-high 11 assists.
The Tigers’ Reese Montgomery, facing constant double-teams in the post, finished with 5-of-14 from the field for 12 points while adding 11 rebounds. Brayden Sifford chipped in nine points.