Strong second half lets Panthers pull away

It was a typical Iowa-Grant and Highland non-conference battle Monday until the last two minutes of the first half.  

That is when the Panthers went on a 14-5 run and stated to move the game in their favor. When it was over the host Panthers outdistanced the Cardinals 97-65.

The Panther offense was impressive.  They had three players make it to 20 points and had four end up in double figures.

Sam Lundell led with 23. Grant Rickard added 22 with Treaton Loeffelholz next with 20. Tyler Schultz also hit doubles with 11.

Not to be outdone the Cardinals also had a trio of players in double digits. Kaden Washa led with 19 with Koyer Zadrazil netting 18 and Jack Terrill scored 10 in traffic all night.

The Panthers put the game away with a 55-34 second half.

“I thought the adjustments we made at halftime really paid off for us the second half,” I-G coach Shawn Dailey said. “We wanted to make the defense work more and not take that quick shot. We wanted to get the ball inside and only shoot the threes on inside out passes.”

The plan worked and the Panthers took control o the game.

“We emphasized making the extra pass to get an even better shot,” Dailey pointed out.  “I thought we shared the ball extremely well the second half.”

Dailey pointed out that having three players hitting 20 or more points was a huge factor in the win.

“I would love to know if that has happened before at Iowa-Grant,” the coach said.

Dailey said it was great to see Sam Lundell shoot so well after struggling a bit of late.

“He needed a game like this before tournament,” said Dailey.

“Grant Rickard was a beast in th epaint,” Dailey pointed out. “This was probably his best game all year finishing around the rim.”

Another key to the win was the defensive effort turned in by Landon Friesen who held Highland’s Jack Tarrell to 10 points, well below his 24 per game average.

“Jack is one of the better players we have faced and our defense was designed to slow him down,” Dailey said. “I think we did.”

“Iowa-Grant’s starters have been together for three seasons and have become a good team,”said Cardinals coach Ryan Hill.  

“I give our kids credit because they do not quit,” Hill said. “We knew they would be keying on Jack so it was good to see others step up.  William Fritsch picked up some points off the bench and Arthur Hay had some good moments. Our kids did not fold and worked hard the entire game. We had too many turnovers once again but our kids off the bench got some good experience.  We did not have a JV game so we got them some time on varsity.”

SCORE BY HALVES

Highland      31   34   65

Iowa-Grant  42   55   97

BOX SCORE

HIGHLAND 65: (fg-ft-tp) Zadrazil 7-1-18, Washa 8-1-19, Tarrell 4-2-10, Nankey 3-0-7, Bedward 0-0-0, Hay 4-0-7, Thielorn 0-0-0, Fritsch 2-0-4. Totals 27-4/5-65. Fouls-5

IOWA-GRANT 97: Schultz 4-0-11, Friesen 1-0-2, Lundell 10-0-23, Zimmer 3-0-8, Rickard 10-2-22, Fisher 3-0-7, Pettit 0-0-0, Lange 1-0-2, Collins 0-0-0. Wetzel 0-0-0, Loeffelholz 9-1-20, Baker 1-0-2. Totals 42-3/6-97. Fouls-9

3 point goals:

H-Zadrazil 3, Washa 2, Hay 1, Nankey 1

I-G-Schultz 3, Lundell 3, Zimmer 2. Fisher 1, Loeffelholz 1