Strategy fizzles out for Bearcats against third-ranked Warhawks

GREENE – It was a simple, straight-forward plan, really.

And it worked for a while as North Butler (2-16, 2-12 Top of Iowa East) was facing Class 1A No. 3 West Fork (18-1, 14-0 TIC East).

The plan: hold onto the ball as long as the Bearcats could so the Warhawks couldn’t score.

However, that plan worked only so long as the visitors were able to break out for a 58-22 win over North Butler.

“They didn’t want to get into an up-and-down game with us,” West Fork veteran coach Frank Schnoes said. “I think they were hoping to keep it close and we missed some easy shots inside, once we got some transition points, some steals and got our defense set up, then we did all right.”

North Butler first-year coach John Jones readily admitted that was his strategy. One key moment, a book error, put the Bearcats in disarray as a name was omitted and when the player checked in, a technical was assessed to the Bearcats. West Fork scored on 1-of-2 free throws and then scored on the extra possession.

“That is exactly what we were doing,” Jones said. “The game-plan going in, stall, try to take care of the ball, we were in it, we missed a couple shots, they weren’t bad shots, good shots that just didn’t go in. Some of those (shots) fall in…And then, the technical, that was on me.

“I went over his (Fletcher Buss’) number and completely forgot about it and that was all on me; after that point, everyone was trying to figure out what was going on, that ‘T’ was on me and that kind of lost our momentum, sucked the air out of the crowd.”

The Warhawks went on to outscore the Bearcats 20-1 in the second quarter and the rout was on.

Kayden Ames led all scorers with 14 points, followed by Jakob Washington and Cail Weaver, who came off the bench, with 11.

All 12 West Fork players who reached the floor contributed in some way.

“It’s definitely what I want my future teams to look like,” Jones said of West Fork. “They set the tone, the standard of what good basketball looks like. The best thing about it is they compete hard every single possession. You look at the guys at the end of their bench, they were going as hard as the first-teamers.

“And, if you can get that from your own team, you’re going to be really good. Kudos to them, it’s definitely something we look up to. They always keep re-starting with new people, that’s a very good program.”

Nevertheless, despite the Warhawk pressure, North Butler was able to hang on to the ball for good chunks of time. That was thanks in part to senior Eric Brehmer.

“The Brehmer kid does a decent job of handling the ball,” Schnoes said. “So, we tried to face guard him and tried to keep him out on the outside with the ball a bit more. It’s nice to actually see that once in a while before tournaments because you never know if you’ll run into it someplace. It’s nice to experience because the kids were going, ‘this is kind of strange.’ The kids played well and started hitting some shots.”

Both teams in the same district were set to meet for the seeding the next day. West Fork was likely to be the top seed while North Butler appeared destined for the play-in game against Clarksville, a non-conference team they lost to at Clarksville.

“It’s hard with my team,” Jones said. “We’re better than what our record shows. We’ve been in a bunch of games where we lost by three or four points. Other games we haven’t played the best, but the best thing is the kids aren’t giving up. It’s not like they are going downhill, but I’ve been telling the kids we’re almost working toward next year, at the same time, we’re getting better every single the game.”

West Fork 58, North Butler 22

West Fork (18-1, 14-0)– Ian Latham 2-6 1-2 6, Brett Weaver 2-7 0-1 5, Kayden Ames 6-11 0-0 14, Noah Maske 2-2 0-1 4, Colin Martinek 0-0 0-0 0, Jakob Washington 4-6 2-3 11, Nate Hubka 1-2 0-0 3, Edison Caspers 0-0 0-0 0, Cail Weaver 5-7 0-2 11, Jason Meier 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Nuehring 1-2 0-0 2, Brayden Vold 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-48 4-11 58.

North Butler (2-16, 2-12) –Eric Brehmer 0-9 1-2 1, Alex Shultz 1-4 0-0 2, Nathan Hawker 0-0 0-2 0, Dawson Clark 1-1 0-0 3, Fletcher Buss 1-2 0-0 2, Colby Wilkerson 2-5 0-0 5, Kaleb Salge 3-7 0-0 6, Owen Almelien 0-1 0-0 0, Corbin Lewis 0-0 1-2 1, Xander Treichel 1-2 0-0 2, Henry Pittenger 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 9-33 2-6 22.

W. Fork        8   20   17   13      -   58

N. Butler      4     1     4   13      -   22

Three-point goals – WF 6-17 (Ames 2-5, Washington 1-1, B. Weaver 1-3, C. Weaver 1-3, Latham 1-4, Hubka 0-1); NB 2-7 (Clark 1-1, Wilkerson 1-4, Brehmer 0-1, Shultz 0-1). Rebounds– WF 22, 6 off., 16 def. (Washington 8, Latham 3, Caspers 2, Meier 2, B. Weaver, Ames, Maske, Martinek, C. Weaver, Nuehring, Vold 5); NB 27, 5 off., 22 def. (Salge 13, Shultz 5, Lewis 3, Buss 2, Treichel 2, Brehmer, Pittenger). Assists– WF 14 (Latham 3, B. Weaver 3, Washington 2, C. Weaver 2, Maske, Hubka, Caspers, Vold); NB 5 (Brehmer, Hawker, Boos, Buss, Lewis). Steals– WF 13 (Ames 3, Washington 3, Latham 2, C. Weaver 2, B. Weaver, Martinek, Hubka); NB 3 (Brehmer, Wilkerson, Lewis). Blocks– WF 6 (Latham, Washington, Caspers, C. Weaver, Meier, Nuehring); NB 3 (Salge 2, Buss). Total fouls– WF 7, NB 12.Fouled out – None.