December 18, 2020 at 1:45 p.m.
Short handed Panthers lose to second half Redbird surge
Playing with four fouls, junior scoring threat Reid Lundell was doing his best to avoid his fifth and was on the opposite side of the lane when contact occurred. But for some reason the referee signaled number 2, Lundell's number which resulted in his fifth.
All the arguing the Panther coaches did fell on deaf ears and Lundell was forced to watch much of the second half from the bench.
"It was actually Alex Popple's foul," said coach Ryan Hill. "Alex wears number 24 but the referee said he only saw 2."
Of course there is no replay in high school basketball so the call had to stand.
The Panthers trailed 45-38 at halftime and were making the most of the only eight players who were available. They were still competing with the Redbirds when Lundell was forced to exit.
Led by 12 from Carter Lancaster and seven by Curtis Stone along with six from Cayden Rankin and Will Murray the Redbirds netted 39 second half points while the Panthers were only able to manage 15.
Isaac Hill did his best to keep the Panthers in it with 19 points. His total included 12 of 13 free throws and his 14 the first half along with Alex Popple's 11 kept the Panthers in it.
But with Lundell absent the second half the Redbirds were able to slow down Hill, holding him to five, and shut out Popple completely.
"We actually played much better than the score indicates," said Hill. "I felt we played OK for the most part against a very good and aggressive team. They have good size and depth."
When it comes to depth both teams were able to play their entire line-up but the difference was that the Redbirds had 13 available bodies while the Panthers had only eight at their disposal.
"We have three out with injuries still from football and a couple more on quarantine," Hill said. "We are hoping to get a couple back this week."
"But Darlington is a very good team," Hill said. "Being shorthanded and losing Reid early in the second half hurt."
SCORE BY HALVES
IOWA-GRANT 38 15 53
DARLINGTON 45 39 84
BOX SCORE
IOWA-GRANT 53: (FG-FT-TP) Schmitz 1-2-4, Lundell 2-1-5, Hill 3-12-19, Pennekamp 1-0-2, Steffl 2-0-5, Achenbach 3-0-6, Kuhls 0-0-0, Popple 4-3-11 Totals 16-18/21-53. Fouls-16 Fouled out-Lundell
DARLINGTON 84: Rankin 4-3-11, Lancaster 13-11/17-37, Stone 5-0-13, Hardyman 4-0-8, Hartwig 0-0-0, Evenstad 2-1-5, Maurer 0-0-0, Murray 3-2-8, Davis 0-0-0, Ruf 0-0-0, C. Fitzsimons 1-0-2, P. Fitzsimons 0-0-0, Hendrickson 0-0-0 TOTALS 33-17/25-84 Fouls-22
3 Point Goals
D-(1) Stone 1
I-G-(2) Hill 1, Steffl 1
