New London gets Grand View Christian

DES MOINES — New London is heading to Wells Fargo Arena next Monday looking to make a run at the Class 1A state title.

The Tigers (19-6) punched their ticket after downing Marquette Catholic 70-69 in overtime on Saturday night in Solon. To get there, New London defeated Danville 78-49 in the district quarterfinals, No. 5 WACO 61-60 in the semifinal and Winfield-Mt. Union 58-52 in the district final.

Three seniors and two juniors head the Tigers starting five.

Senior’s Blaise Porter and Kade Benjamin have given opponents problems all season long.

Porter leads the Tigers from the guard position at 25 points per game along with 8.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists. Benjamin follows with a 19.6 points per game average along with 8.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocks. He’s been a force down low.

Junior Brendan Richey has been one of the Tiger’s leading shooters from deep. Richey leads the squad with a 36.3% three point percentage, while averaging 8.4 points on the year.

Fellow junior Leo Gebauer is a jack of all trades for New London, tallying 8.2 points per game and 3.5 rebounds.

Senior Rylan Martin is one of the Tigers’ top on ball defenders, while also being able to knock down the three ball. Martin comes in averaging 6.2 points per game and shoots 34.1% from three.

The No. 8 seeded Tigers will take on top seeded Grand View Christian team that has yet to lose, sitting at 24-0. The Thunder’s closest game on the season was just nine points.

Through the postseason, the No. 1 Thunder have blown out their opponents defeating East Union 104-33, Earlham 86-38, Lenox 94-47, and ACGC 106-47, to get to the state tournament.

Grand View Christian is led by three seniors with Josh Sanderson averaging 20.7 points per game and 8.3 rebounds. Frankie Chiodo follows with 16.7 points. The man in the middle for the Thunder is Daniel Tobiloba, who averages 13 points a night and 13.1 rebounds.

Sophomore Emiliano Barrantes scores 13 a night as well along with 10.2 rebounds. Junior Noah John adds 10.9 points, along with nine boards.

The Thunder will have the height advantage in the matchup as they come in with three players over 6’5’’, which includes Tobiloba who is 7’0’’, Barrantes who is 6’9’’ and John who is 6’5’’.

The Tigers and Thunder are very similar in every statistical category, but the Thunder have dominated their opponents on the boards averaging 42.5 rebounds a night. New London averages 25.4 a game. The Thunder also average 13.5 offensive boards to New London’s 5.2.

New London will have to find a way to slow down the Grand View Christian offense as the Thunder are averaging 80.9 points a night.

New London and Grand View Christian will kick off the state tournament with their Class 1A round one matchup beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 6.

The rest of the 1A field will follow as No. 4 West Harrison will take on Dunkerton at 12:15. No. 2 and Class 1A defending state champion North Linn will take on No. 7 Madrid at 2 p.m. Rounding out the 1A field will be No. 3 Gladbrook-Reinbeck battling with No. 6 Remsen St. Mary’s at 3:45.

With a victory, the Tigers will play the winner of West Harrison and Dunkerton in the semifinals at 5:30 on Wednesday. The other semifinal will take place at 7:15 p.m. the same night.

The state semifinal winners will clash at 1 p.m. on Friday for a chance to hoist the Class 1A state title.