WEST ALEXANDRIA – The Newton Indians played with Twin Valley South for the first half of the game. But South got momentum late in the second quarter and rode that momentum after halftime to pull away from the Indians for a 71-58 victory on their home court.
Newton coach on the game, “We got out hustled – beaten to the boards and loose balls all night. We missed a lot of layups and ultimately we were just not ready to play and Twin Valley South gets credit – they wanted it more and were more aggressive. They got to the basket and made their layups. “
Newton opened with a press, but called it off about midway through the first quarter. They did get baskets in transition. They pushed the ball down the court and were able to build a 14-9 first quarter lead. So the Indians were in the driver’s seat early on.
South began to give Newton a dose of their own medicine and did some pressing of their own. The turnover bug began to bite the Indians. Both from the press and Souths half-court defense. They had at least eight turnovers in the first half alone. About midway through the quarter South had caught up to Newton. By the half, South had grown an 8-point lead 32-24. South was getting steals on defense and converting them into points.
Newton might have tried too hard coming back onto the court in the third quarter. They had four quick fouls and Clark Yoder picked up his third foul early in the quarter, putting him on the bench. Offensively, they were cold from the floor. Meanwhile South was having success getting the ball inside and scoring close to the basket. The Indians had problems getting the ball inside and so they tried to ramp up their outside game, but those shots were not dropping.
“We had some people trying to do too much instead of just playing their game. We weren’t playing as a team.”
Despite a Chandler Peters trey (he would lead Indian scoring with 19) to close out the third quarter, Newton was down 52-37. Chandler Peters also drew the difficult assignment of guarding South’s Grant Ulrich, so he had a busy night.
“It wasn’t Chandler Peters best night, normally he is hitting his shots and tonight he wasn’t. He played hard – he always does. He will have better games in the future.”
It got heated in the fourth quarter as the Indians attempted to rally and the Newton coach was rung up with a technical. The Indians did score 21-points in the last quarter and had four players scoring in double figures, but it just was not enough to dent the Panther lead.
The Indians have a quick turnaround on their next game, hosting Miami Valley on Tuesday. But then they travel to Tri-Village to play the league favorite Patriots on Friday.
Newton scoring: Chandler Peters 19, Quinn Peters 11, Clark Yoder 2, Quentin Smith 10, Aaron Gluin 4, Harold Oburn 12.
TVS scoring: Grant Ulrich 24, Cole McNinch 1, Jace Thuma 4, Jandan Ankrom 8, Cole Bishop 1, Logan Clark 2.
