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Bobcats shake off eight-game slide

Marshalltown rallies past Urbandale on Senior Night, 52-48

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown junior Kabba Pins, right, and Gok Arou celebrate after the Bobcats’ 52-48 victory over Urbandale on Friday night at the Roundhouse. Pins had a career-high 9 points in the win.

On a night meant for honoring the seniors, Marshalltown High School junior Kabba Pins had his moment in the spotlight.

Pins scored a career-high nine points — all in the final nine minutes — and drew a charge that helped swing momentum for MHS as the Bobcats snapped a frigid eight-game losing skid with Friday’s 52-48 triumph over Urbandale in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The Roundhouse crowd came to life in the fourth quarter when Pins splashed his second 3-pointer of the season, and the whole hometown fan base rose to its feet when Pins came from the weak side to draw a charge to help protect the Bobcats’ 41-35 lead.

Marshalltown (8-11) made enough free throws down the stretch — including a 4-for-4 effort by Pins — to withstand Urbandale’s comeback after the visiting J-Hawks (5-16) had led for most of the game.

MHS freshman guard Armonniey Thomas tallied a game-high 21 points, including a 3-pointer from the corner that gave the Bobcats only their second lead of the game — but it gave them the lead for good. Finally in front 36-35, Marshalltown got an offensive putback from senior Sunday Arou and Pins’ back-to-back big plays to spark the team on Senior Night.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - Marshalltown freshman guard Armonniey Thomas (10) glides in for a layup against Urbandale during the second quarter of their regular-season finale on Friday night at the Roundhouse. Thomas scored a game-high 21 points in a 52-48 victory.

Thomas sealed it with a steal and 1-of-2 free throws with 4.2 seconds left.

“It feels good,” Pins said of the win. “Coming out of break we’ve been on this losing streak, but now it feels like we can get things rolling again.”

The Bobcats began the game five seniors on the court, though none of them were senior point guard Bennett O’Hare. O’Hare was on crutches after injuring his knee in Thursday’s loss to Des Moines Hoover, but Thomas, Pins and others stepped up when called upon in Friday’s regular-season finale.

“The seniors deserved [to start] for as much time and effort as they’ve put in,” said MHS first-year head coach Michael Appel. “We put an emphasis on playing as hard as Bennett does, because he’s poured his heart and soul into this program for four years, and it was nice to see the guys respond as well as they did.”

In spite of another slow start, Marshalltown learned its lesson from Thursday’s early deficit to rebound from a 7-0 margin right out of the chute. The Bobcats scored six-straight to get back to with 7-6 until Urbandale’s Drew Dykstra made a 3-pointer to push the advantage to 10-6 J-Hawks at the first quarter break.

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Urbandale kept the lead for the rest of the first half, going up by as many as eight before Thomas and Smith scored the final four points of the second quarter to cut it to 22-18.

MHS junior forward Trevor Stamp’s only bucket of the night tied the score at 22-all — the first tie since the opening tip — and a Thomas steal and finger-roll layup gave the Bobcats their first lead of the night — 29-28.

Urbandale recaptured a 35-33 lead going into the fourth quarter, but the Bobcats scored the first eight points of the period to take the lead for good and got their first win since Jan. 8.

“This win was mostly for the seniors, especially without Bennett being out here tonight,” said Pins. “He’s a big key to our offense and defense and our momentum, but we bounced back from that.

“Our game was for our seniors, and we weren’t going to let Urbandale take it from us.”

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

Will Pattison led a balanced J-Hawk offense with 10 points, while Dillon Kuehl, Chance Knox and Sterling Short added nine points apiece. Trailing 51-48 after a pair of Pins free throws with 11.4 seconds remaining, Pattison brought the ball down court and tried to pass across the top of the key, but Thomas jumped in time with the Urbandale guard and snatched the ball out of mid-air.

That and one last free throw clinched the long-awaited victory for the Bobcats, who host Mason City in Monday’s Class 4A Substate 2 first-round game. The two teams split their CIML Iowa Conference meetings, including a 74-62 Mason City win in their most recent match.

“This win feels great and it’s coming at the right time,” said Appel. “Everybody’s 0-0 now and it’s one game at a time. I love coaching these guys and I don’t want that to end anytime soon.”

Marshalltown 52, Urbandale 48

At Marshalltown

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE

URBANDALE (5-16) — Drew Dykstra 2 1-2 6, Will Pattison 5 0-0 10, Dillon Kuehl 3 1-2 9, Chance Knox 4 0-0 9, Cal Watson 2 1-2 5, Seth Anderson 0 0-0 0, Alex Economos 0 0-0 0, Alex McConkey 0 0-0 0, Sterling Short 3 2-2 9. TOTALS 19 5-8 48.

MARSHALLTOWN (8-11) — Eric Kapayou 0 0-0 0, Jacob Smith 5 1-2 12, Jensen Evans 0 0-0 0, Luke Smith 0 0-0 0, Sunday Arou 2 0-0 4, Armonniey Thomas 8 2-4 21, Kabba Pins 2 4-4 9, Austin Shomo 0 0-0 0, Will Van Buren 1 2-5 4, Trevor Stamp 1 0-1 2, Gok Arou 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 22 9-16 52.

URBANDALE 10 12 13 13 — 48

MHS 6 12 15 19 — 52

3-Point Goals–Urbandale 5 (Kuehl 2, Dykstra, Knox, Short), MHS 5 (Thomas 3, Pins, Smith). Total Fouls–Urbandale 17, MHS 12. Fouled Out–Knox.

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