New London survives comeback

WEST LIBERTY - New London had just three boys basketball players enter the scoring column Tuesday in a Class 1A District 8 battle with the Springville Orioles. Devin Swanson canned seven 3-pointers in scoring 32 points, Blaise Porter had five first half points but finished with 25 and Kade Benjamin scored 14 points but swatted seven shots before fouling out.

It all added up to a 71-68 victory for the New London Tigers (18-4) over the Orioles (22-3), who were trying to return to the state tournament.

New London will play Easton Valley (21-0), a 50-48 overtime winner against Wapello (16-4). The Substate 4 title game is at Maquoketa Saturday with a state tournament trip to the winner.

Porter created the possibility of that trip with his defense on an inbounds play with 6.6 seconds remaining.

'We wanted to get a pick and roll but that tip didn't allow us to handle the ball,” Springville head coach Nick Merritt said of the play called. 'We have a lot of experience but we were getting down on ourselves so that run happened at the right time.”

That run was the second one after the Orioles rallied from 38-30 to tie it at 38. New London built the lead back up with a 14-2 run that made the score 52-40. A Porter charge with 5:32 remaining in the game changed the momentum as did Benjamin fouling out with 4:35 left. A timeout at 3:10 didn't help nor did four straight missed free throws by the Tigers.

Springville's Alex Koppes, who scored 26 points, sank a pair of foul shots with 54 seconds on the clock and it was tied at 58. Porter's basket at :37 and an Oriole basket by Rhenden Wagaman, who had 18 points, at :18 sent it to overtime at 60-60.

Overtime was a Porter basket, an Oriole dunk and a three, Swanson three, Koppes three and a Porter two made the score 68-67 for Springville with two free throws and 27 seconds on the clock. Both were missed. Swanson converted two free throws with :16 left and New London had a 69-68 lead but the Orioles had the ball.

Until Porter took possession of it and scored the final tally.

'He guards every team's best player and scores for us,” New London head coach and Blaise's father Bryant Porter said. 'We're asking a lot of a 16-year-old.”

Coach told Swanson the Tigers are a different team when he comes to play. 'He is just as dangerous as Blaise Porter.”

'Midseason, I started stepping out and shooting threes but I wasn't hitting them and Coach trusted me to keep trying,” Swanson said. 'I started knocking them down so my teammates passed me the ball. All I can do is knock it down for them.”

Despite having a double-digit lead, the Tigers kept pushing the pace.

'We have a couple days to work on that and we will get it,” Coach Porter said.