North nips MHS boys 57-54

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown senior LaMar Johnson (24) comes down with the offensive rebound on his way to two of his 14 points in a 57-54 loss to Des Moines North on Tuesday night at the Roundhouse.
Marshalltown boys basketball was a bucket short of Des Moines Lincoln on Tuesday, falling 57-54 in the Roundhouse.
Kyle Smith scored a career-high 30 points for the Bobcats, with 21 of those points scored in the second half, and LaMar Johnson added 14 first-half points.
Trailing 56-54, both Bobcats had opportunities to tie or push MHS ahead, but an inside look for Johnson was blocked out of bounds by 6-foot-6 D’Mir Coleman with 25 seconds left and an inbounds play eventually went to Smith from the right wing for a 3-pointer that was off the mark with 18 seconds left. Aaron Poe went to the line for the Polar Bears and was 1-for-2 to make it a 3-point contest. With no timeouts and 11 seconds left, the Bobcats went up the floor but a pass to Smith was deflected and by the time Smith recovered, he had to heave a prayer from near the logo that missed wide, sealing the win for North.
“Our execution was there when we needed it,” MHS head coach Michael Appel said. “Other times it wasn’t so good. We have these lulls where we just make it way harder than it needs to be, and we go away from what’s working, quick shots, bad turnovers. We just need to be a little more consistent and stick with what works. That’s tough to do over the course of a game but the better we get at that, the better we’ll have a chance at winning.”
North led for most of the game outside of a seven-point spurt from the Bobcats in the third quarter that awarded MHS its first lead at 37-34 midway through the third. The Polar Bears ended that quarter on an 11-2 run, however.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown’s Drake Gersema tries for the scoop shot against Des Moines North defender Da’corion White (22) during the second half of Tuesday’s basketball game in the Roundhouse.
Smith hit a couple free throws to tie it at 50-all in the fourth quarter, but after a North response Marshalltown turned the ball over on its next two possessions, falling behind by six again before rallying with buckets from Drake Gersema and Smith to set up the final sequences.
“We need more of our role guys to be scoring,” Appel said. “We can’t rely on just Kyle or Drake. LaMar did an awesome job that first half as we ran some stuff to him and he was able to put the ball in the hole, that was huge for us. And then we just fed the hot hand in the second half with Kyle.”
Da’Corion White led North with 17 points — and was one of six Polar Bears with at least one 3-point basket on Tuesday, with eight total treys as a team, as Marshalltown tried to focus on protecting the paint.
“We’ve been getting beat at the rim these last few games,” Appel said. “We switched our ball screen defense to try and trap a little more and help eliminate some of those drives. When you do that, you’re going to give up some threes if the rotation isn’t there. We did a good job of that though, and you just have to give North credit for knocking down some shots — they had some guys that didn’t have a great percentage coming into the game make some threes and that was something we took a chance on.”
The loss ends a back-to-back stretch where Marshalltown lost by a combined eight points after a 59-54 loss to a one-win Cedar Rapids Jefferson team on Monday.

The Bobcats are on the road at Roosevelt on Friday.
“We’re not happy losing by any means, but we were just so much better prepared tonight than we were Monday,” Appel said. “We took that Monday game for granted, but we answered the bell tonight, our guys were ready to play. Now we just need some consistency with that as the season goes on.”
Des Moines North 57, Marshalltown 54
DM NORTH (6-3) — TAngello Bush 2 0-0 6, JJ Seay Jr. 1 0-0 3, Aaron Poe 1 1-2 3, Da’corion White 6 4-4 17, Tarian McNeley 2 0-0 5, Jayvion Hanson 3 0-0 8, D’Mir Coleman 4 2-6 10, Naszir Lamar 2 0-0 5. TOTALS 21 7-12 57.
MARSHALLTOWN (3-8) — Jamison Niehouse 0 0-0 0, Drake Gersema 4 0-0 8, Kyle Smith 11 2-2 30, LaMar Johnson 7 0-0 14, Jacob Hayes 1 0-0 2, Adam Boone 0 0-0 0, Zane Moore 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 2-2 54.

DM NORTH 15 15 15 12 — 57
MHS 10 17 12 15 — 54
3-Point Goals–DMN 8 (Hanson 2, Buch 2, Coleman, Lamar, White, McNeley), MHS 6 (Smith 6). Team Fouls–DMN 6, MHS 11. Fouled Out–none.
- T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – Marshalltown senior LaMar Johnson (24) comes down with the offensive rebound on his way to two of his 14 points in a 57-54 loss to Des Moines North on Tuesday night at the Roundhouse.
- T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – Marshalltown’s Drake Gersema tries for the scoop shot against Des Moines North defender Da’corion White (22) during the second half of Tuesday’s basketball game in the Roundhouse.