Rams Reign
The season before Curt Schulte took over as head coach, the Glenwood basketball team won just one game.
Friday night - 12 years and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears later - the Rams became state champions.
A brilliant game plan that had Glenwood spacing out a taller, longer Oskaloosa team and challenging every shot defensively proved the difference as the Rams pulled away late for a 66-62 win before a reporter-estimated crowd of 8,000 at the Wells Fargo Arena in the Class 3A state finals.
Schulte could barely control his emotions after the game, calling the state title a win as much for his team as the Glenwood community that withstood decades of losing seasons before its recent success.
“I’m really happy for this community,” Schulte said, fighting back tears. “They supported us from day one. Tonight having the crowd there supporting us was unbelievable. We won this one for them. For the community. For the fans. We got it done.”
The Rams got it done despite facing a distinct size disadvantage in the No. 3 seeded Indians (23-4).
Schulte said the game plan he and his coaches came up with for the state title game was one of the hardest they’ve had to concoct as a staff. It isn’t just every day you face a front line that goes 6-foot-11, 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-5.
“We haven’t played a team like that this year,” the coach said. “So last night was really difficult for how we were going to approach this game. And we finally came to the conclusion we had to do what we’ve done all year long: we were going to continue to play up tempo and come out and trap and defend in the half court and hedge really hard and kind of make them decide how they were going to defend us.”
Glenwood struggled early to get into their scheme, getting down by as many as seven points in the second quarter before closing the half on an 8-2 run to knot the score at 38-38, despite the Indians shooting a blistering 68 percent.
But in the second half, the Rams’ “space and pace” plan began to pay off. Playing much of the final two quarters with five shooters on the floor, Glenwood forced the taller Indians to chase Glenwood’s quicker ball handlers.
After going into the fourth quarter tied at 51-51, Glenwood began to see more open looks as the final frame went on. In a span of 2:20, Andrew Blum hit two three pointers and his freshman brother Ryan Blum hit another to give Glenwood a 60-55 lead with just over four minutes to go.
An Oskaloosa misfire on the ensuing possession gave Glenwood the ball back with 3:47 to go. Schulte immediately called a timeout and instructed his team to go their spread stall offense.
With four fouls to give, the Rams burned nearly two minutes of clock before point guard Nate Mohr hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 61-55 with 2:24 to go.
After Oskaloosa’s Tucker Spencer hit a three to cut the lead in half, Mohr was fouled once more and again hit 1-of-2 at the line to push the margin back to 62-58 with 1:47 to go.
On the next possession, Mohr would be the one whistled for the foul and it’d be a costly one for the senior. Called for his fifth foul, the Ram’ point guard would spend the final 1:28 on the bench.
Schulte wasn’t happy with the call or the result but if he was worried, he didn’t show it.
“Obviously we didn’t want him to pick up that fifth foul,” Schulte said. “But you know what, Zach Carr came in and did a great job at point guard and he did a fantastic job of getting into our delay game. We ran clock but we really just wanted to space it out.”
Carr, the Rams back-up point guard, came in and kept Glenwood organized on both ends of the court.
Andrew Blum would miss the front end of a one-and-one but, following an Oskaloosa miss on the other end, would hit his next two free throws to extend the lead to 64-60 with 31.7 to go.
After a scramble that resulted in the Indians getting the ball back under their own basket with 17 seconds left, 6-foot-11 Xavier Foster’s dunk would make it a slim 64-62 game. But the Indians' Jared Kruse would be whistled for an intentional foul on the inbounds pass and the Rams’ Nate Kennedy would sink both free throws to make it 66-62.
Glenwood threw a long pass to Christian Stanislav who dribbled out the clock as the Ram bench and fans erupted in cheers.
The Indians shot 54 percent for the game but never looked comfortable in their post offense and the Rams held a 36 to 25 rebounding edge.
“That was a huge stat,” Schulte said of his team’s rebounding. “The two things we said would win us this game were defense and rebounding. If you would have come to me and told me we were going to out-rebound them by 11 I would have probably not believed you.”
After storming the court with his team and accepting the school’s first state championship trophy, Schulte talked about the support his program has received not just at state, but the entire season.
“They’re great,” he said of the Ram fans. “And it hasn’t just been for the state tournament. It’s been since day one when we played T.J,. the first game of the year and on the road and at home. Our fan base has been outstanding, to see a sea of black in that whole side wrapped around it, was great. It was a great feeling to have that support for our kids. They were a big part of why we won tonight. Our kids feed off the crowd and the emotion. I’m very happy for our team.”
Andrew Blum led the Rams with a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Blum was named to all-tournament team as its captain following the game. He was joined on the team by Mohr – who scored 11 points and dished out eight assists in title game – along with Oskaloosa’s Foster and Jared Kruse and Cedar Rapids Xavier’s Matthew Mims.