New London’s journey to state

NEW LONDON — While the New London boys basketball team is now focused on the state tournament, the journey to get there wasn’t an easy one.

From tough state ranked opponents to dealing with injuries, the Tigers experienced it all through the season.

The Southeast Iowa Super Conference has always been a tough place to play and this season it was no different.

Things didn’t start the way the Tigers would have liked as they opened the season up with a loss on the road to Van Buren County, 55-48.

It was a game where the Tigers saw a large first half lead slowly dwindle into the fourth.

New London got into a grove following the loss, as the Tigers won four straight.

That included big wins over Danville 69-58 and Mediapolis 56-42.

One game later and the Tigers suffered their second loss of the season, coming from the hands of eventual SEISC South champions Class 2A’s No. 6 West Burlington, 51-43.

Once again New London responded win big wins, downing GMG 99-69 and defeating an undefeated Moravia squad 73-59.

Against GMG, the Tiger trailed the Wolverines at the half, but went on to outscore them 58-26 in the second half.

Following the pair of wins, the Tigers headed over to Mt. Pleasant. It was a tough night for the Tigers as they were bested by the Panthers 61-40.

New London answered again.

The Tigers picked up a huge win over eventual SEISC South runners-up Burlington Notre Dame, 78-63.

After the victory over the Nikes, the Tigers matched up with SEISC North leading No. 5 WACO on the road.

In thrilling battle that came down to the wire, the Tigers were edged by the Warriors, 68-64.

The loss moved the Tigers to 7-4 on the season.

New London didn’t waiver though as they put together another dominant stretch of games.

The Tigers were winners of five straight, which included a revenge victory over Van Buren County 75-54 and regular season sweeps of Danville, Central Lee, Holy Trinity Catholic and Mediapolis.

During that span the New London also suffered a big loss, as the Tiger’s big man Kade Benjamin went down with a knee injury that would sideline him to the postseason.

What followed would prove to be the Tigers worse stretch of games, just two back-to-back losses.

The Tigers suffered losses to West Burlington 62-55 and Notre Dame 79-57, which by margin would be their largest loss of the season.

From then on out, the Tigers wouldn’t miss a beat and they wouldn’t lose again.

In the final three regular season games, the Tigers picked up wins over Davis County 81-60, Pekin 67-66 in the SEISC Shootout and Keokuk 62-51 to end the regular season.

Benjamin made his return to the Tigers starting five in the playoffs.

To begin their postseason run, the Tigers crushed Danville 78-49 to move into a second round clash against WACO.

In a rematch against the Warriors, the Tigers got some payback when it mattered most in a final second nail-biter 61-60 to earn a spot in the substate semifinal.

New London’s opponent was none other than Winfield-Mt. Union, who finished second in the SEISC North and came in off a big win over Notre Dame in the second round.

The Tigers had the Wolves’ number in the first half of the their matchup as they led 38-21 at the half.

But after the Tiger’s Blaise Porter went down with five fouls, the Wolves nearly completed the comeback. New London was able to hang and win it 58-52.

The victory put the Tigers just one game away from state. The one team standing in the way of that goal was Marquette Catholic.

In a tightly contested district final, a back and forth battle needed overtime to decide a winner.

The Tigers survived a pair of Marquette game winners to head into overtime and win by one, 70-69, punching their ticket to the Class 1A State Tournament.

The now No. 8 seeded Tigers will take on top seeded Grand View Christian, who has yet to lose, sitting at 24-0.

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.