Brayton Cibula added 18 points and Kayler Morris scored 10 for the Redhawks (11-8, 8-4 Iowa Star South); Aiden Frank and Daniel Zoske led BCLUW (2-16, 2-9) with 19 and 10 points, respectively.

The Redhawks trailed 14-6 in the early going and were down 26-21 in the second quarter before an 8-0 run capped by a Morris 3-pointer before the halftime horn for a 29-26 North Tama lead.

“We just had to slow it down a little bit,” Dostal said. “Make better passes, and not turn the ball over, we turned it over a little too much in the first half.”

Daniel Zoske rattled home a corner three to tie it up for the Comets to start the second half but scored nine of the next 11 points and had jumped out to a 46-36 lead at the end of three quarters with help from some defensive pressure.

“We had to get more hands out in the passing lanes,” North Tama head coach David Schmit said. “Knock down, deflect some more passes.”

The Comets fired their way back into the game on a pair of 3-pointers from Frank that whittled North Tama’s lead down to 55-47 with just over three minutes to play. Tyrus Luker had an answer for the Redhawks though, and a BCLUW turnover led to a Cibula bucket that effectively sealed the game for the visitors.

Dostal had 15 of his total points in the first half, consistently driving to the basket and drawing contact for extra points at the free-throw line.

“He’s a big part of our game,” Schmit said. “It’s huge when he can be aggressive, we’re a lot better too when he plays that way, because it opens up Cibula to come down in the paint and once we get both those guys going our outside game opens up even more.”

North Tama can finish no worse than a tie for third in the South, and while the standings show a clear pecking order between Collins-Maxwell, Baxter, Colo-NESCO and the Redhawks; it wasn’t always that clear on game days.

“We’re all around the same level, it’s a pretty good conference,” Dostal said.

Schmit added, “Even the teams at the bottom are tough – GMG is tough even if their record isn’t where they’d like it, and BCLUW gave us all we could handle early on tonight. Both North and South are pretty tough, but I think we played well with our schedule.”

The Redhawks and BCLUW will face North Division opponents to be determined in the Iowa Star Conference Basketball Challenge on Saturday.

North Tama 63, BCLUW 47

NORTH TAMA (11-8, 8-4) — Kayvin Morris 2 0-0 6, Josh Dostal 8 4-11 20, Kayler Morris 4 0-0 10, Tyrus Luker 3 0-0 7, Brayton Cibula 8 1-3 18, Jordan Dostal 1 0-0 2, James Brandhorst 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 26 5-9 63.

BCLUW (2-16, 2-9) — Kevin Hill 1 1-1 3, Wyatt Gould 3 0-0 7, Eathen Petermeier 1 0-0 2, Aiden Frank 5 5-5 19, Daniel Zoske 4 1-2 10, Beau Towne 0 0-0 0, Ryan Busch 0 0-0 0, Owen Myers 3 0-0 6. TOTALS 17 7-8 47.

N. TAMA 15 14 17 17 — 63

BCLUW 16 10 10 11 — 47

3-Point Goals–NT 6 (Kv. Morris 2, Kl. Morris 2, Luker, Cibula), BCLUW 6 (Frank 4, Gould, Zoske). Team Fouls–NT 10, BCLUW 13. Fouled Out–Hill.