First-quarter flurry pushes Union Community past Alburnett in Class 2A district semifinal boys’ basketball game

ALBURNETT - They say you can’t win a basketball game early, you can only lose one. Poppycock.

LaPorte City Union Community’s boys’ team won its Class 2A district semifinal Thursday night exactly because of the way it played in the first quarter.

The Knights scored the first 10 points of the game and never led by less than six the rest of the way as it beat Alburnett, 63-48.

“Going into this game, we hadn’t started great at all, all year really,” said Union’s Tate Van Dyke, who hit five 3-pointers and had a game-high 20 points. “We’ve been slow out of the gates. There have been maybe one or two games where we’ve been decent out of the gates, but coming out here and (leading) 16-6, that was huge.”

Van Dyke and Cameron Mullen had treys in that opening Knights flurry. Mullen had a driving two-pointer, as did Maddux DeWinter.

“We came out and punched them in the mouth, and they weren’t expecting it,” said Union center Eric Neipert, who had 18 points and 15 rebounds. “That set the pace for the rest of the game, so that was huge.”

Alburnett (16-6), meanwhile, couldn’t buy a bucket, let alone a point. The Pirates missed their first nine shots from the field and a pair of free throws.

At one point in the second half, Alburnett had shot 17 free throws to Union’s one, which is normally great. Yet it made just eight of those 17.

That’s bad, and represented that is was just that kind of night for the Pirates, who were a second seed in District 11 and thus had a first-round bye. Union played a first-rounder Monday night, beating Hudson.

“We came in and talked about how they hadn’t played in a week and a half,” said Union Coach Eric Jesse. “The bye is a good thing, but also can be a bad thing sometimes, especially for high-school kids. So we made that a point of emphasis, said let’s go jump on them early. Let’s set the tone early with our pressure defense, with our big man down low and our shooters out beyond the arc. We executed our game plan perfectly. It was awesome to see.”

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“I think there was rust there for us,” said Alburnett Coach Jeff Christopherson. “We scrimmaged against Monticello, but that’s not really the same thing as a game ... Give them some credit. They punched us in the mouth right away, basically. We had some good looks early in the game, but there was just like a lid on the basket. We miss some shots, we get a couple of free throws, and they don’t go in for us.”

Union (15-9) is an interesting team. Neipert is the only senior, with a bunch of juniors and a freshman either starting or playing minutes off the bench.

The future looks good, for sure, but the present does, too. The Knights won their division in the North Iowa Cedar League, the school’s first conference title since 2009, when their first-year head coach played there.

Denver (19-4) is the district final opponent Tuesday. The Cyclones won the regular-season game between the teams.

“Familiar opponent,” Jesse said. “We’re going to have to have a couple of great days of practice, some good film work. But I’m excited. I think these guys are ready. Hopefully we can take that next step.”

It was a disappointing ending for an Alburnett team that tied with North Linn for the Tri-Rivers Conference West Division championship. The Pirates lost starter Josiah Steen a little past midway through the season with an ACL injury in his knee, which was significant.

That allowed team to throw an extra body at leading scorer Matthew Neighbor. The senior post averaged a double-double this season, finishing his career here with a 15-point, 8-rebound game.

Rylen Rozek and Laken Caves added 10 points apiece for Alburnett.

“It’s tournament time,” Christopherson said. “You’ve got to take care of the basketball, you’ve got to get the best look you can, and you’ve got to make free throws. We didn’t do all those things. That’s the bottom line. We just didn’t do those things well enough, and they beat us.

“This game they were better.”

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AT ALBURNETT

UNION COMMUNITY (63): Tate Van Dyke 7-12 1-2 20, Eric Neipert 8-14 2-3 18, Maddux DeWinter 2-2 0-0 5, Cameron Mullen 4-10 0-0 10, Caden Sorensen 3-8 0-0 6, Sawyer Spence 2-6 0-0 4, Bryson DeWinter 0-0 0-0 0, Ethan Winnike 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-52 3-5 63.

ALBURNETT (48): Zander Obert 2-2 0-2 5, Matthew Neighbor 5-15 5-6 15, Rylen Rozek 4-11 0-1 10, Laken Caves 4-13 1-4 10, Caiden Bueckers 0-5 0-2 0, Hayden Gustafson 1-3 2-2 4, Brady Kaestner 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 18-53 8-17 48.

Halftime - Union Community 30, Alburnett 21. 3-point goals - Union Community 8-18 (Van Dyke 5-7, M. DeWinter 1-1, Mullen 2-5, Sorensen 0-2, Spence 0-3), Alburnett 4-19 (Obert 1-1, Neighbor 0-3, Rozek 2-6, Caves 1-5, Bueckers 0-2, Kaestner 0-2). Rebounds - Union Community 29 (Neipert 15), Alburnett 35 (Bueckers 11). Total fouls - Union Community 17, Alburnett 10. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Union Community 7, Alburnett 8.

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