Glenwood clinches share of Hawkeye 10 title

63 years was long enough, according to Glenwood coach Curt Schulte.

His Rams had just knocked off Red Oak 64-42 and wrapped up a share of the Hawkeye 10 Conference title – the school’s first since 1952.

“This feels great,” Schulte said after the game, still holding the game ball with a Hawkeye 10 Conference Champions t-shirt slung over his shoulder. “The kids are excited. They wanted this. This was one of our goals since the summer. This is something we were shooting for and it was great to get it tonight.”

The Rams (13-3 overall, 10-1 in the conference) got off to a shaky start, hitting just 1-of-9 shots to open the game and turning the ball over an uncharacteristic five times in the first six minutes. Schulte said his team’s slow start was probably equal parts Red Oak and an earlier 4:30 p.m. start due to last week’s snowstorm.

“A lot of that had to do with Red Oak,” Schulte said. “They played hard. Coach (Theo) Funderman does a great job with them and he has them playing great defense. They work hard. We just got off to a little slow start and I think maybe the early start and a lot of other factors might have played into that but I thought we came on and did some good things.”

Glenwood put their early troubles behind the minute and a half of the first quarter, hitting three three-pointers and taking an early 14-3 lead. In the second, the Rams opened the quarter on a 16-4 run, capped by Andrew Blum’s layup and free throw that made the score 30-7 with 3:34 to go in the half.

The Rams led 36-13 at the half and by as many as 27 in the second half n cruising to the season sweep of the Tigers and their sixth win in their last seven games.

Blum led the Rams with 19 points. After scoring eight first half points, Blum heated up in the second half, scoring 11 points all in the third quarter.

“He had a great second half,” Schulte said. “He was feeling it and we were setting up some specials for him because we knew he had the hot hand and we wanted to keeping going to him in the second half. He had a strong 16 minutes.”

Nate Mohr added 17 points and Connor Weis and Christian Stanislav eight points each.

Despite the historic significance of the win, the Ram players and coaches didn’t rush the court nor openly celebrate the conference title. Schulte said his team celebrated in the locker room. He said the title is a huge step for his program but its just one step.

“This is just one of our first goals,” Schulte said. “The kids are hungry. They know we have more goals to get. They’re proud of this. This is one of the toughest conferences in the state and we’re proud of this but we have other goals we want to accomplish this year and we’re looking forward to February.”

Weston Rolenc led the Tigers with 15 points.