DeWitt Central overpowers Solon in 3A boys’ basketball substate final

MOUNT VERNON — It was a Solon kind of game.

“This is the game we had to have,” Spartans Coach Jared Galpin said. “We needed it to be an ugly, dogfight of a battle.”

Unfortunately, Solon never really found an answer for DeWitt Central's Shawn Gilbert in Monday's Class 3A substate final at Mount Vernon High School.

The 6-foot-9 senior post followed up his 45-point performance in a win last week over Cedar Rapids Xavier with 26 more, leading the Sabers to a 47-37 win before an overflow crowd.

Coach Marty Marshall's team moves to 18-6 with the win and advances to the state tournament next week in Des Moines.

Solon closes its campaign at 15-10.

Gilbert found himself swarmed all night by a bevy of Solon defenders and found himself saddled with two early fouls, sending him to the bench after scoring his team's first 10 points.

Solon took advantage, grabbing a 16-14 lead on a 3-point basket from Oaken Foster to open the second quarter. However, it would be the Spartans’ lone field goal of the quarter.

“We got some stops in the second quarter,” Galpin said. “We had a chance to make a run and we didn't. We missed some free throws when Shawn was on the bench. We were at 16 for a long time.”

Marshall brought Gilbert back late in the second quarter and his two late baskets gave the Sabers a 23-18 lead at intermission.

“We knew they would be physical,” Marshall said of Solon. “We just kept trying to feed it inside like we do with Shawn and we kept going to it, but it starts on the defensive end and we gave up 37 tonight.”

The Spartans never got closer than four the rest of the way. A key moment came at the start of the fourth quarter when a technical foul was given to senior guard Jake Quillin before play had even started with the Spartans down, 33-25.

Solon was to have the possession to start the period. Instead, Gibson McEwen hit a pair of free throws and Gilbert followed with a lay-in, pushing the margin to 12. After getting a stop, the Sabers came down and got a 3-point basket from Gus Pickup, pushing the lead to 40-25.

“That was big,” Marshall said of the technical. “McEwen knocked down the free throws and that sent us on our own little run.”

The Spartans kept battling. They got the lead down to eight in the final minute, but could never get any closer

“Man, they left it all out there,” Galpin said. “They did all they could do.”

Quillin paced the Solon offense with 12 points. Matthew Watters chipped in with 10 for DeWitt Central.

DEWITT CENTRAL (47): Paul Kuehn 0 0-0 0, Gibson McEwen 2 2-4 6, Gus Pickup 1 0-0 3, Matthew Watters 4 1-4 10, Shawn Gilbert 11 4-7 26, Carver Krukow 0 0-0 0, Carter Drury 1 0-0 2, Brady Petersen 0 0-0 0, Ryan Watters 0 0-1 0. Totals: 19 7-16 47.

SOLON (37): Jake Quillin 4 3-4 12, Carson Miller 0 0-0 0, Jacob Timmons 2 0-2 4, Kinnick Pusteoska 2 1-3 5, Jake Benzing 2 4-4 9, Gehrig Turner 0 0-0 0, Brady Mullen 0 0-0 0, Oaken Foster 1 0-0 3, Sean Stahle 0 0-0 0, Cayden Knipper 2 0-0 4. Totals: 13 8-13 37.

DeWitt Central 14 9 10 14 — 47

Solon 13 5 7 12 — 37

3-point goals: DeWitt Central 2 (Pickup, M Watters), Solon 3 (Quillin, Benzing, Foster). Total fouls: DeWitt Central 15, Solon 18. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: Quillin