Warhawks overcome double-digit deficit to top Knights

SHEFFIELD — After a hot start by West Fork’s Kayden Ames, The West Fork boys’ basketball team fell behind Mason City Newman in the second quarter and didn’t recover until a furious second-half rally.

In fact, the Warhawks trailed the Knights 42-31 with 5 minutes, 23 seconds to go in the third quarter before coach Frank Schnoes’ team kicked it in for a 69-60 victory to stay unbeaten.

It wasn’t the first time West Fork had fallen behind an opponent to come-from-behind, Schnoes said.

“I think in the fourth quarter we’ve been behind in most of our games,” Schnoes said. “The kids pulled together when we need to, in order to execute and make some plays.”

The Knights weren’t missing much from the field in the first quarter and took the lead despite a buzzer-beating shot by West Fork that made it 18-17 after the first eight minutes.

Newman took a 35-27 halftime lead.

“We were letting them get to the hoop whenever they wanted,” Ames said, “and the second half came, the third quarter, I think where we hit a couple of shots, (momentum was) starting to swing our way. And then, we took the lead and there was no going back.”

Ames’ three-pointer at the 5:03 mark in the fourth quarter regained the Warhawk lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

“I don’t know, something hit and then in everybody’s head realized where we were exactly, that we should be winning this game and just everybody got motivated and started coming to play,” Ames said. “I started off hot at the beginning of the game and then started to struggle hitting shots. I saw that (shot open), knew the situation and had to make it and I was feeling pretty confident.”

Part of the Newman spark before that came from off-the-bench in an all-too-familiar face to the West Fork players: Max Burt, West Fork teacher Eric Burt’s son.

“Growing up, we have played against them, and always kind of knew him a little, but not real close,” Ames said. “Burt is in charge of the weight room early bird teacher. We talk in the mornings and stuff. (Max) was injured, so we didn’t know how much he was going to play and then he played a lot. He played well.”

Although he didn’t start the game, he provided enough of what Newman needed, getting the nod to start in the second half, finishing with nine points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

With Burt getting fouled driving to the hoop less than a second on the clock in the third quarter and hitting both free throws, Newman led 49-43.

Schnoes said, “He (Max) has been hurt the last few games. And he sees the floor really well, yeah it’s interesting. Eric works with all of these kids in the weight room and has them in classes and stuff. He takes pictures for us for posters and stuff. His kid’s a nice player, just a freshman, now that he’s back, they are a better ball club. I think the (Doug) Taylor kid will be back before too long, those two guys are really quality players, it will just make them better as they go along.”

Part of the comeback, though, was aided by Jakob Washington, who went from only scoring one point by halftime to tallying 15 points for the game with seven straight for West Fork in the final minute and a half of the third quarter.

Ian Latham then hit a three before Ames’ go-ahead long-ball.

“We started doing some full-court pressure in the second half and I thought we created a few turnover situations,” Schnoes said. “I think more than anything else, it got our kids moving defensively, so I think that’s when it started.

“Real happy with Brayden Vold, (he) played a real nice ball game, particularly in the second half. His defense got a lot better; did a good job on the pass game in the second half. Of course, Kayden Ames has been steady for us. Ian came through and hit some big shots for us. The threes in the fourth quarter really helped, it fired up there and motivated them a little bit.”

Ames and Vold both scored 20 points with Latham scoring all 12 of his points in the second half.

Both Ames and Schnoes say that their team is capable of better.

“I think we need to play better defense than the beginning of the year from the first three games that we did today and against Northwood,” Ames said. “I feel we are very good defensively, but we have been struggling, we should be able to turn it around and make a good run and finish strong.”

Schnoes added, “We have all kinds of things to work on: we don’t do a good job of shooting free throws, that’s been a point of contention from the first game and, you know, it’s hard to be an up-tempo team and be patient on the offensive end when there is nothing there. We have to work on that. It’s hard to do both — you are either up-tempo or you are patient.”

West Fork improved to 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the TIC East with two conference games looming this week before the holiday break.

West Fork 69, Mason City Newman 60

Mason City Newman (2-3, 2-2)– Max Burt 2-8 4-5 9, Owen Casey 0-1 0-0 0, Tim Castle 0-0 0-0 0, Sammy Kratz 9-11 4-4 22, James Matthews 1-6 0-0 2, Jacob Nelson 2-7 0-0 6, Elijah Brinkley 4-9 0-0 10, Caden Rodning 0-1 1-2 1, Noah Hamilton 4-6 2-2 10. Totals 22-49 11-13 60.

West Fork (5-0, 3-0)– Ian Latham 4-8 2-3 12, Brett Weaver 0-5 0-0 0, Kayden Ames 9-18 0-1 20, Noah Maske 0-0 0-1 0, Jakob Washington 5-9 4-6 15, Ren Heimer 0-1 1-2 1, Cail Weaver 0-2 1-2 1, Brayden Vold 9-11 2-6 20, Joe Ingham 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-54 10-21 69.

Newman    18   18   14   11      -   60

West Fork  17   10   16   26      -   69

Three-point goals – MCN 5-14 (Nelson 2-3, Brinkley 2-5, Burt 1-2); WF 5-17 (Latham 2-3, Ames 2-9, Washington 1-3, B. Weaver 0-1, C. Weaver 0-1). Rebounds– MCN 29, 8 off., 21 def. (Hamilton 8, Burt 6, Kratz 4, Brinkley 4, Casey 2, Nelson 2, Matthews); WF 27, 8 off. 19 def. (Washington 8, Vold 7, Latham 6, Ames 3, B. Weaver, Heimer, C. Weaver). Assists– MCN 10 (Burt 4, Casey 2, Kratz, Matthews, Nelson, Hamilton); WF 20 (Washington 7, B. Weaver 5, Latham 3, Heimer 2, C. Weaver 2, Vold). Steals– WF 12 (Washington 5, Ames 3, Latham 2, Heimer, Vold). Blocks– MCN 1 (Hamilton); WF 5 (Vold 4, Washington). Total fouls– MCN 14, WF 12. Fouled out – MCN (Kratz); WF, None.