Tigers cruise past Comets

NEW LONDON - When the New London and Cardinal basketball teams met in Eldon earlier this year, New London had to stage a comeback to pick up conference win. On Tuesday night in New London, the Tigers left no doubt.

New london rolled to a Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division win, 87-49, ending the regular season with a victory and completing the season sweep over the Comets. The Tigers were able to speed the game up, playing at their pace all night. They led 22-17 after one quarter, 45-27 at halftime and 73-33 after three periods. New London got the majority of their points inside, and the Comets' outside shooters weren't lighting up the gym like they were in their home matchup against the Tigers, a game where they knocked down 13 3-pointers.

'They live and die by the three,” New London coach Bryant Porter said. 'They were just on at their house. They shot a lot of them tonight, but they weren't on, and we had a little better defense tonight.”

It was another big night for Grant Swanson, who scored 22 points to lead the Tigers, one night after passing the 1,000-point mark in a 71-46 road win at Van Buren on Monday.

'It was our last home game tonight,” Swanson said. 'So us seniors had to go all out.”

Blaise Porter scored 19 points. Demontae Watkins had 11. Markel Luckett scored 10. Devon Swanson had eight. Torren Riley scored five. Kade Benjamin had four, and the duo of Kooper Schulte and Jax Boyer had three apiece.

Griffin Greiner had a big game, scoring 20 points for the Comets. Ben Clark had eight points. Shakur Pope scored six. Dawson Lewis scored five. Jarrett Greiner had four, and Landon Becker scored three.

'We had a game plan, but those guys are great athletes and they have some serious ball skills,” said Comet head coach Michael Strasko. 'We've got to learn to control the boards better. I know we're small, but that means we have to rebound as a unit. I think that contributed a little bit. We got rushed, and tried to move the ball around too quick at times, and tried to take advantage of some things that weren't there.”

New London ended the regular season at 14-7. Cardinal finished off at 10-12. Both teams will be in postseason play next week.