Kuemper edges Glenwood, 56-54

    Glenwood couldn’t hold on to a five point lead with four minutes remaining in the game as Kuemper Catholic rallied for a 56-54 Hawkeye 10 Conference boys basketball victory over the Rams on Friday.
    “This was a good quality high school basketball game between two good teams. We just came up two points short,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte.

    The Rams (3-3 overall, 1-3 in the conference) led by one at halftime and the score was tied at 38-38 after three quarters. In the fourth, Glenwood methodically built a lead, taking a five point lead with just over four minutes to go in the game. But the Knights used a 9-0 run to pull back in front.
    A three pointer and a pair of free throws by Tyler Jensen trimmed the lead to one before Kuemper went to the line and hit one of two free throws to put the lead back to two with just seconds left. Gage Shatava’s half court heave came up short as time expired.
    All game long the Rams did a good job neutralizing Kuemper’s size – the Knights’ stating lineup went 6-foot-6, 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5 along the front line – by mixing up their defenses.
    “We played a little man-to-man but we played a lot of zone too. I thought we reacted well and we rebounded well. If they did out-rebound us is wasn’t by much,” Schulte said.
    The Rams played the final quarter and a half without third leading scorer and starting point guard Grant May who dislocated a finger in the game. May had 13 stitches in the finger and will miss seven to 10 days to recover.
    “He probably won’t play Tuesday but he’s a tough kid and with Christmas break coming that should give him time to heal up,” Schulte said.
    J.J.Hahn led three Rams in double-figures with 14 points. May added 12 and Jensen 11. Sam Brincks paced Kuemper with 23 points.
 
Glenwood 55,
Red Oak 41
    On a cold night, Glenwood turned up on defense in the second half and held Red Oak to just 20 points after halftime in a 55-41 victory last Tuesday.
    “We created tempo, I thought, with our wing pressure in the second half,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte after the game. “We wanted turnovers and I thought we pushed the ball, got those turnovers, and we rebounded.”
    The Rams (3-2 overall, 1-2 in the conference) held a 29-15 rebounding edge, and, more importantly, Schulte said, his team didn’t surrender many second chance shots in the final two quarters.
    “We really out-rebounded them and I was proud of that,” Schulte said. “We gave them too many second chances the first half, that’s why it was only a five or six point game. We limited those opportunities and we shot it better (the second half). It was a good solid second half. I don’t think it was a solid total four quarters, but we had a solid second half against a much improved team.”
    Glenwood, led by forward Corey Bertini, who scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, led 26-21 at the break.
    Schulte said Bertini, who scored a career-high 21 points in the Rams’ win over Clarinda Academy last Saturday, is playing with confidence on both ends of the court.
    “He’s not only confidence on the offensive end but he’s playing with a ton of confidence on the defensive end,” Schulte said. “He had a big challenge tonight. We had him on Tanner Johnson, one of the best players in the conference, and he stepped up to the occasion on both ends.”
    The Rams opened the third quarter on a 6-2 run and extended their lead to double-digits on Brady Douma’s three-pointer with 3:29 to go in the third quarter.
    In the fourth quarter, back-to-back layups by J.J. Hahn and Bertini stretched the lead to 47-31 with just under five minutes to go.
    Glenwood took its biggest lead of the game at 53-37on Douma’s layup with 2:55 to go. Red Oak never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
    The Rams out-scored the Tigers 29-20 in the second half.
    Hahn added 14 points for Glenwood. Douma and Taylor Jensen pitched in nine and eight points each, respectively.
    Johnson led Red Oak with a game-high 21 points.