Rams down Atlantic in district opener
ATLANTIC - The Glenwood boys basketball team avenged two regular-season losses to Atlantic with a 70-69 victory in the Class 3A, District 16 opener Monday in Atlantic.
With the win, the Rams (10-12) will play Harlan (15-6) Thursday in the district finals at Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln. Tip off is set for 7 p.m.
“This was a great win tonight,” said Glenwood coach Curt Schulte after the victory over Atlantic. “It was a great district atmosphere and we came up big.”
Glenwood led 19-13 after a quarter and 33-26 at halftime, thanks mostly to a switch up on defense Schulte prepared just for this game. Schulte was determined to not let the Trojans’ top scorer, Garrett Franken, have any clean looks on offense. The gambit paid off as Franken finished with a season-low two points.
“We played mostly a diamond-and-one, with some two-three (zone) and some man-to-man at the very end,” Schulte said. “We used Wyatt Schulz and Andrew Blum on Franken all night. We played man on him and a 1-2-1 zone on everybody else. It was very effective.”
With Franken bottled up, the Trojans’ Andrew Hawkins responded with a big night offensively, scoring a season-high 37 points to almost single-handedly keep Atlantic in the game.
By the end of the third quarter, the Trojans had trimmed the Rams’ lead to just 45-44 heading into the final frame. In the fourth, Atlantic briefly took the lead before the Rams wrestled control back to pull out their win.
“We showed great composure down the stretch,” Schulte said. “They made a hard run at us and we bounced back and fought them off. This was a great win for us.”
The Rams hit 10 three-pointers in the game with Nate Mohr hitting five and Wyatt Schulz four. Mohr led with a career-high 21 points and Schulz added 14.
C.B. Lewis Central 61,
Glenwood 51
Glenwood trimmed a 16 point lead down to six in the fourth quarter but that was as close they would get in a 61-51 loss to Council Bluffs Lewis Central in last Monday’s regular season finale.
The Rams (9-12 overall, 4-7 in the Hawkeye 10 Conference) trailed 40-24 entering the final frame before rallying.
Dylan Stouder led Glenwood with 12 points. Ridge Fisher and Andrew Blum added 11 each.
Mitch Moran paced the Titans with 15 points.