Warhawks blaze by Bearcats

GREENE – Even though North Butler wanted to pull the ball out and limit West Fork’s ability to touch the ball, the overwhelming pressure put on by the Warhawk boys’ basketball team led to a number of steals and turnovers in an eventual 67-30 Top of Iowa East Conference win on Monday, Jan. 18.

Kayden Ames scored a game-high 25 points, 17 of which came in the first half, as West Fork improved to 7-2 overall, 7-0 in the TIC East.

It was the start of what was going to be an extremely busy week for West Fork, which had to quarantine before the Winter break and this game was a makeup since North Butler, also, had to quarantine after the break.

“It will be busy for us,” Schnoes. “We have St. Ansgar twice, Central Springs twice, the kids probably like that better as opposed to practice where you can get pretty stale. The kids are getting tired of practicing against each other.

“The other option is we won’t be playing, you know, it’s better than having to shut down completely and not doing anything. We take what we can, I guess.”

On that, North Butler coach John Jones agrees.

“I’m glad we can get them in, to play some basketball, back to something,” Jones said. “Some normalcy for the guys. We’re glad that we’re back and the chance to play basketball. I know some states haven’t allowed it, so that is one of the good things about Iowa is they are allowing us to have a Winter season.”

North Butler dropped to 4-6 overall, 4-3 in the TIC East. The Bearcats were led by Kaleb Salge, who had nine points, seven in the first half.

“That (slow down) was my game plan to start and they were running it fine for the first six minutes,” Jones said. “But, they just got a couple of turnovers and stretched the lead and that’s what happens. If we took care of the ball…we want to limit their possessions because they want as many possessions as they can get offensively.

“Then we switched it up, run our basic offense, just get back into the groove. The second half, we made some adjustments. For our kids, it’s our very first game (in more than a month). We don’t expect our very first game coming back from our extended break to be West Fork, but I think we did our best. Other than that, it’s something we look forward to: we look forward to Central Springs, St. Ansgar and then Newman. We have a busy week.”

After returning from missing five scheduled games, one of the Bearcats starters, Owen Almelien, chose to compete while wearing a mask, something none of the other players did.

“I didn’t even realize he was wearing a mask until the fourth quarter, that’s how much I was paying attention to him, but that’s just a personal thing for him,” Jones said. “I don’t tell him, it’s not mandatory.”

West Fork 67, North Butler 30

West Fork (7-2, 7-0)– Kayden Ames 10-17 0-0 25, Jakob Washington 2-11 0-0 4, Ren Heimer 4-5 0-0 10, Cail Weaver 4-6 0-0 8, Joe Ingham 5-7 0-0 10, Noah Maske 2-3 0-0 5, Colin Martinek 0-4 0-0 0, Nate Hubka 0-1 0-0 0, Edison Caspers 1-4 0-0 2, Michael Black 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 29-60 0-0 67.

North Butler (4-6, 4-3)– Alex Shultz 0-2 1-2 1, Nathan Hawker 2-3 4-4 8, Corbin Lewis 3-7 1-2 7, Fletcher Buss 1-1 0-0 2, Avery Boos 0-2 1-2 1, Owen Almelien 0 1-2 1, Kaleb Salge 4-6 1-1 9, Aidan Gotto 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden Wangsness 0-0 0-0 0, Xander Treichel 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 11-26 8-12 30.

W. Fork      12   19   21   15      -   67

N. Butler      7     6     5   12      -   30

Three-point goals– WF 9-19 (Ames 5-10, Heimer 2-2, Maske 1-1, Black 1-2, Weaver 0-1, , Hubka 0-1, Washington 0-2); NB 0-3 (Almelien 0-1, Lewis 0-2).Rebounds– WF 26 (Washington 6, Heimer 4, Caspers 4, Ingham 3, Ames 2, Weaver 2, Martinek 2, Hubka 2); NB 19 (Salge 6, Lewis 5, Hawker 3, Shultz, Almelien, Buss, Wangsness, Treichel). Assists– WF 18 (Ames 4, Washington 3, Weaver 3, Maske 2, Martinek 2, Heimer, Hubka,Ingham, Black); NB 1 (Hawker). Steals– WF 14 (Ames 3, Washington 3, Heimer 3, Weaver 3, Maske 2); NB 5 (Lewis 2, Hawker, Salge, Boos). Blocks – WF, None; NB 2 (Hawker 2). Total fouls – WF 11, NB 9. Fouled out – None.