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Keota swept by Lynnville-Sully
Eagles girls basketball drops ranked matchup, boys team falls short in comeback
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
KEOTA - Keota boys basketball could have rolled over after halftime. The Eagles found themselves down 12 points against Lynnville-Sully, having not breached 10 points in either of the first two quarters.
Instead, the Eagles buckled down on defense, preventing Lynnville-Sully from hitting a 3 in the final 16 minutes. A valiant comeback effort fell just short, as the Hawks were able to hold on for a 57-47 win Tuesday night.
Despite the loss, Keota’s effort in the second half gave it plenty of positives to take from a hard-fought game against a Lynnville-Sully side that is yet to be beaten this season.
“I told the kids, I’m not going to fault any of your efforts at all for this game,” Coach Dan Stout said. “We played as hard as we could.”
Keota managed to trim Lynnville-Sully’s lead as low as two points early in the fourth quarter when Ayden Galindo put in a layup to make it 43-41 with 5:33 left. The Eagles 2-3 zone defense flummoxed the Hawks. Keota stayed aggresive, forced turnovers and limited the Lynnville-Sully to just 6 of 16 shooting in the third quarter.
“We were playing the numbers,” Stout said. “We were just trying to defend inside, and I thought we did a much better job on (Lynnville-Sully’s Jack Bowlin). He made four easy layups in the first half and we only gave him one basket in the second half.”
Jackson Vittetoe led Keota in scoring with 12 points. He ended the third quarter with a layup that trimmed Keota’s deficit to six heading into the fourth.
Galindo and Chase Haifley finished with 10 points each. Galindo also helped give Keota a presence on the glass. The Eagles second-half rebounding effort is made even more impressive given they have just two players on their roster listed at 6-feet or taller, compared to nine for Lynnville-Sully.
“I thought the whole night long we rebounded pretty well,” Stout said. “A lot better than we did against Sigourney and this team is a lot bigger than them. I thought we made a big effort to try and do that. Just some little things here and there that didn’t go our way. They’re a good ball club.”
The Hawks overwhelming size and 5 of 10 clip from deep gave them a cushion in the first half. Bowlin, who Keota limited in the second half, scored eight points in the opening two quarters.
On the girls side, Keota suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of a ranked Lynnville-Sully team. The Hawks, came in at No. 6 in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union rankings, and took command of the game in the second half to win 69-41.
Keota struggled to string together stops defensively despite keeping pace relatively well on offense at the start of the game. The Eagles scored 17 points in the second quarter, but found themselves down 43-29 at halftime.
“We’re beating ourselves as much as they were beating us, and that’s not the type of team that you do that to,” coach Jeff Sprouse said. “They’re a good team. They’re ranked for a reason. They’re very physical. So we have to do a better job of that.”
Keota limped out of halftime, scoring just three points in the third quarter as Lynnville-Sully kept up its pressure. Clean looks were hard to come by for the Eagles, who often had to drive into a crowded paint to get shots at the rim.
“They clogged it down, and what did we have to do a better job of is driving and kicking it,” Sprouse said. “We didn’t necessarily do that, and that’s where our balance I hope would overcome that, but we did not get to those things tonight.”
Cameron Haifley finished as Keota’s lone player in double figures with 14 points. Haifley did show glimpses of her usual high-level shot making with two second quarter 3s. Emily Conger was Keota’s next highest scorer with seven points. Jessalyn Aller and Ella Greiner each scored five.
Sprouse doesn’t plan on letting his side dwell on the loss. Both the Keota girls and boys teams next face off against Montezuma on Friday. The Montezuma girls team is ranked No. 11 in Class 1A.
Sprouse called for his team to find a response in practice with a quick turnaround, and not let a defeat define a season that can still hold plenty of success for the Eagles.
“You’ve got to make sure that we take care of the little things,” Sprouse said. “If you do the little things, things will find a way to work out, but if you don’t do the little things, the dam opens up and it just floods. We’ll be better than that, and they’re resilient.”
The Keota girls team dropped to 6-1 and 4-1 in South Iowa Cedar League play following the loss. The boys team fell to 3-2, with all games coming against SIC competition.
Keota and Montezuma will tip off at 6 p.m. for the girls game with the boys game to follow at 7:30 p.m. at Montezuma High School.
