Boys’ basketball notebook: A combined HLV/Tri-County program finding success

CEDAR RAPIDS - It has become a numbers game this season for HLV and Tri-County. And that’s a good thing.

It’s the first of a two-year sharing agreement in every sport for the South Iowa Cedar League schools. There are 24 kids out for boys’ basketball, ninth through 12th grade.

This varsity team has a winning record of 7-6, the seven wins more than what the schools had combined on their own last season and more than Tri-County’s seniors had in their careers prior to this season. That was five.

Yeah, a numbers game. Good numbers.

“I think it has gone great, really,” said head coach Shawn Welsh. “The biggest thing is it has built competition in practice. For both schools the past couple years, you just played the guys you had. Sometimes, a lot of times that wasn’t the best thing. In practice, you are practicing against your JV guys, and there’s a huge difference in skill level there.

“We can split up between JV and varsity, so have varsity on varsity. That has really helped out a lot.”

The boys’ program has 14 kids in it from HLV and 10 from Tri-County. Of the varsity 12, it’s nine kids from HLV and three from Tri-County.

Two of those three are starters: senior guard Levi Molyneux and sophomore guard Sean McCulloch. Dylan Springer, last year’s head coach at Tri-County is an assistant for Welsh.

Molyneux is second on the team in scoring at 10.2 points per game. Senior guard Peyton Roth leads the way at 20.6 points per game.

He is approaching 1,000 points in his HLV career. Make that HLV/Tri-County career.

“I think we move the ball well,” Welsh said. “The biggest thing was a lot of these guys got together this summer ... They got in the gym, worked together, played together. So they got familiar with each other. Just ball movement, knowing where each other is going to be, finding the guy when we need to (has been good).”

It’s about a 25-minute drive between the two schools, so you’ve got to be dedicated to play. HLV and Tri-County had a combined girls’ hoops program last season.

The sharing agreement extends to the middle-school level as well. All of the varsity games are being played at HLV, with the exception of a Feb. 7 non-conference game against Seymour.

That one will be in Thornburg and will serve as a homecoming event for Tri-County since it did not get one during the football season.

“We want to finish with a .500 record,” Welsh said. “That’s goal number one.”

Around the hoop

– Caleb Haack set Iowa Valley’s career record for scoring in his team’s 77-53 win Tuesday night over English Valleys. The 6-foot-9 senior has signed to play football at Northern Illinois University. He is approaching 1,500 career points.

– North Fayette Valley’s Cael Reichter saw his double-double streak end at 34 straight games Tuesday night. The senior forward had “only” 30 points and eight rebounds in NFV’s lopsided win at West Central. North Fayette Valley improved its record to 15-0.

– Speaking of double-doubles, Matthew Neighbor had 18 points and 14 rebounds Tuesday night as Alburnett beat Class 1A 10th-ranked North Linn in overtime, 58-56. North Linn is 13-2, the first time since the 2015-16 season it has lost more than once and the last time it did not qualify for the state tournament. NL was 21-2 that season, ironically being eliminated in the postseason by Alburnett.

– Gavin Kramer set the Northeast Goose Lake single-game record for points by pouring in 47 in a win last week over Camanche. Kramer made 11 of 20 3-point shots in the game.

– Pairings for the second Crossover Challenge this season have been set. Cedar Rapids Kennedy will play Waukee Northwest, Sioux City East takes on West Des Moines Valley, Western Christian plays Waukee, Johnston plays Norwalk, Iowa City Liberty plays Ankeny and Des Moines Roosevelt plays Dallas Center-Grimes. The second Crossover Challenge is Feb. 8, with Waukee and Valley hosting.

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