Spartan boys’ season ends at Boyer Valley

 DUNLAP (Feb. 15) -- Through three quarters Monday night, the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton boys held Boyer Valley standout Gavin Reineke to just two field goals and six points.
 The Spartans weren’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard either, but a crafty inbounds play resulted in a Tyler Petersen layup with :02 left in the third and made the score 32-30.
 Petersen also hit back-to-back three-pointers early in the fourth, giving Exira-EHK short-lived leads of 33-32 and 36-34.
 And then Reineke broke loose.
 The senior forward scored 11 points during a critical 19-9 surge and the Bulldogs hit enough free throws and got enough stops down the stretch to beat the Spartans 57-49 in a Class 1A, District 16 quarterfinal game held in Dunlap.
 After splitting two down-to-the-wire regular season games with Exira-EHK, Boyer Valley won the rubber match and improved to 11-5, advancing to play at West Harrison (17-5) on Thursday night.
 The Spartans, whose varsity lineup included just one senior (Tyler Petersen), finished 11-11 overall.
 “That was the way it was going to end up. One of us was going to get a lead late and get it salted away at the free throw line, and we just happened to be on the wrong end of it,” said Exira-EHK head coach Doug Newton.
 It was Reineke’s late scoring burst that made the biggest difference. The 6-foot-5 slasher hit two turn-around shots near the lane area, scored two more buckets off the dribble and finally hit a long three-pointer to make it 47-40 with 3:07 remaining.
 Newton said that Reineke was able to score against the Spartans late in zone as well as man-to-man, either shooting over defenders or going around them.
 “He’s a tough matchup for sure,” Newton said. “He can shoot over top of you and we didn’t help on those screens quite enough. We gave him a little bit too much of a cushion and he knew what to do with that.”
 Exira-EHK trimmed a 51-42 deficit down to five points twice in the last two minutes but couldn’t get any closer as the shots weren’t falling.
 Newton looked back to the third quarter as a key point in the game. The Spartans held Boyer Valley to 10 points but scored just seven.
 “We just didn’t do in the second half the things we did in the first half,” he said. “We quit putting the ball inside, which didn’t get (Boyer Valley) in any more foul trouble, and then we didn’t get to the free throw line near as much either. We could have had them in a lot different situation to where their scorers weren’t in there and that might have changed things a little bit.”
 The first half featured two ties and nine lead changes and ended with the Spartans up 23-22. Freshman Jackson Radcliff paced Exira-EHK with eight first-half points - all on baseline drives and free throws - but did not add to his total after the break.
 Tyler Petersen scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, freshman Cash Emgarten scored 11, Easton Nelson had 10 and Trey Petersen added three.
 The Spartans knocked down 15-of-18 free throws on the night but made only 15 total field goals (four treys) and turned the ball over on errant passes several times against Boyer Valley’s active zone defense and traps.
 “Those guys are quick and they’re athletic and my six foot or 5’10” guys have a (hard) time passing over, around or anywhere near Reineke... and (Jaidan) TenEyck is really athletic and long as well. We’ve just got to do a little better job of being in a more athletic position, and pass fakes would have helped us a little bit too.
 “I’m not trying to take anything away from them. They just flat outplayed us in the second half, but I don’t think they changed a whole lot. We just quit being aggressive, we quit going inside with it, and kind of tried to live along the perimeter and this isn’t the time of year to do that.”
 Reineke finished with 19 points and four assists for the Bulldogs, who shot 43.8 percent as a team. Adam Puck hit three treys for his nine points, Drew Volkmann scored eight and five others had at least five.
 Looking back at their .500 season, Newton felt like the Spartans were competitive on a nightly basis despite being very young overall with freshmen taking up six of the 11 varsity roster spots. He said that Tyler Petersen’s versatility will be missed next year, but believes the future is bright.
 “When you lose a guy like Tyler who can post up for you and shoot the three - and we’re talking about somebody that’s got some pretty good length too - he’ll be missed for sure,” Newton said. “We’ve just got to have some guys that step up and maybe do some things in the off-season.
 “Really, other than a poor shooting night against IKM-Manning and they got us pretty good, all the rest of our games we were in. We really didn’t just get run out of the gym ever all year long.”
 Newton is hopeful that all of his returning players are hungry to get better between now and November.
 “All those freshmen... kind of had baptism by fire, had to maybe learn a little too much on the fly, but I think they did learn something and they’ll get a little bit more mature physically and mentally,” he said. “We’ve got a good bunch of guys ahead of them too... that can help hopefully lead us along.
 “I think we’ve got some pretty good days ahead. With the youth movement we’ve had the last couple years and the way we’ve finished in the conference and finished record-wise, I’m pretty happy with the way the guys have worked out.”

CLASS 1A, SUBSTATE 8 BOYS BASKETBALL
District 15 Quarterfinal Scores • Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 15-16
GV Christian 83, Glidden-Ralston 41    CR-Bayard 38, Ankeny Christian 37
Madrid 54, Audubon 38                         Ogden 72, IKM-Manning 60
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District 16 Quarterfinal Scores • Monday, February 15
CB St. Albert 71, West Monona 37    West Harrison 74, Ar-We-Va 61
Woodbine 47, Logan-Magnolia 38     Boyer Valley 57, Exira-EHK 49