×

Warriors withstand Spartans

T-r photo by ross thede Jarius Bear (31, white) drives in past Grundy Center’s Mitchell Munson (31, red) during Meskwaki Settlement’s game with Grundy Center on Monday night. Bear had 21 points as the Warriors outlasted a Spartan comeback, winning 65-62.

MESKWAKI SETTLEMENT — Try as it might, the Grundy Center boys’ basketball team couldn’t keep Meskwaki’s dynamic scoring duo down.

The Spartans went the other direction, and it nearly reversed their fortune.

The Warriors’ free-throw shooting woes almost allowed Grundy Center to erase a fourth-quarter deficit, but an offensive rebound by Tate Bear helped Meskwaki stave off the Spartans’ comeback attempt, 65-62, in Monday’s non-conference game.

Bear scored a career-high 33 points despite going 8-for-14 from the free-throw line, and Jarius Bear tallied 21 points as the Warriors ended a brief two-game skid. But not until Grundy Center’s last-second 3-point attempt rimmed out did Meskwaki have that victory secured.

The Warriors (7-9) shot 12-for-29 from the free-throw line for the game, including an 8-for-17 performance in the final period that kept the Spartans in the contest. A few untimely missed layups and turnovers told the final story for Grundy Center (4-11), however, and the Spartans suffered their third-straight defeat.

t-r photo by ross thede Braidan Buhrow (53) launches up a 3-pointer against Meskwaki Settlement’s Noah Seymour (10) as time expires at the end of Monday night’s game against the Warriors. Buhrow’s 3 rattled out, which would have tied the game, handing Grundy Center a 65-62 loss.

After trailing for most of the game, Grundy Center made its move in the third quarter and took a three-point lead after Drew Rathe’s steal and layup made it 42-39. The Spartans’ largest lead of the game didn’t last, as Tate’s up-and-under layup with 2 seconds left made it a one-point contest going into the final frame.

The Warriors fired out of the break with the first six points of the fourth, starting a 12-3 run that gave them an eight-point advantage. Having led by 10 points in the first half, it seemed Meskwaki had regained the upper hand for good.

But Grundy Center turned the tides on the host by fouling Meskwaki’s less-experienced players. Emmett Roberts went 1-for-6 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, Noah Seymour missed a pair and even Tate came up empty twice from the charity stripe. But it was an offensive rebound and putback bucket by Tate that stemmed the Spartans’ comeback if even for just a moment, and Meskwaki held on at the end.

“I always tell them, free throws are your friends,” said Warriors head coach Dina Keahna. “You’ve got to concentrate. It’s all muscle memory. It’s something you’ve really got to concentrate on, especially in a game like this.”

Down five, the Spartans got back into it when Rathe made his third 3-pointer of the game. Tate took the ball to the basket and scored a layup instead of taking time off the clock, but Grundy Center gave the ball back with a missed layup on the other end.

The margin remained at four after Roberts missed a pair of free throws, and Sage Klar converted a loose ball on the Spartans’ ensuing possession into a reverse layup with 5.5 seconds left.

The Warriors got the ball inbounded to Tate, who went 1-of-2 at the line to make it a three-point game with 4.8 v still showing, but Braidan Buhrow’s buzzer-beating 3-point attempt rolled in and out.

“We still had an opportunity, we gave ourselves a chance and Braidan had a good look and it was in and out,” said Grundy Center head coach Joe Nelson. “If it goes in, it goes in. But if not, we go back to four or five possessions at the beginning of the ballgame. It just adds up over a period of time.”

“It’s a tough loss but we’ve got to rebound. We’re at West Marshall [tomorrow] night for another tough conference game.”

Behind Tate’s 33 points and Bear’s 21, the Warriors got eight from Seymour and three from Roberts. Jarius led Meskwaki with nine rebounds and Tate had eight more.

“They’re going to be targets and we’re trying to adjust to the different defenses put on us,” said Keahna. “We try to keep them spread out to try and avoid double-teams and from that we need to be able to find the open guys.”

Grundy Center got a team-leading 17 points and seven rebounds from Bryce Flater, while Rathe finished with 14 points and six boards. Klar and Joe Johnson both scored nine points for the Spartans.

“All games we’ve got to value the ball every possession, especially in games like this,” said Nelson. “We missed quite a few bunnies inside … and we gave up an offensive rebound late. That’s an opportunity we lost out on. You’ve just got to value the ball and every possession counts.”

Meskwaki 65, Grundy Center 62

At Meskwaki Settlement

GRUNDY CENTER (4-11) — Drew Rathe 5 1-2 14, Sage Klar 4 0-0 9, Chase Boren 1 0-0 3, Bryce Flater 6 5-7 17, Braidan Buhrow 2 0-0 5, Mitchell Munson 1 0-0 3, Joe Johnson 3 3-4 9, Tanner Appel 0 0-2 0, Cameron Steenhoek 0 0-0 0, Jordan Hook 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 23 9-15 62.

MESKWAKI (7-9) — Emmett Roberts 1 1-8 3, Tate Bear 12 8-14 33, Noah Seymour 4 0-2 8, Keahna Demarce 0 0-0 0, Jarius Bear 9 3-5 21, James Roberts 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 26 12-293 65.

GRUNDY CTR 8 18 16 20 — 62

MESKWAKI 16 14 11 24 — 65

3-Point Goals–GC 7 (Rathe 3, Klar, Boren, Munson, Buhrow), Meskwaki 1 (T. Bear). Total Fouls–GC 22, Meskwaki 11. Fouled Out–Rathe.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today