It’s seventh heaven for North Linn boys’ basketball team

MANCHESTER — There’s a pretty good chance Mike Hilmer and Marty McKowen will be sitting next to each other Sunday afternoon in Sioux Falls, S.D. Or at least very near each other.

Upper Iowa University is playing in the Northern Sun Conference men’s basketball tournament, and McKowen’s son, Brooks, is the Peacocks head coach. Hilmer’s sons Austin and Jake are guards for UIU.

The topic of Saturday night’s Class 1A substate final game here surely will come up at some point. It has to, right?

Though Hilmer will want to talk about it way more considering his second-ranked North Linn team beat McKowen and Wapsie Valley, 72-51, to advance to the state tournament for the seventh straight year.

“We talked about this quite a bit,” Hilmer said. “In our younger careers, we’d probably be pretty fierce enemies when we’re playing each other. But we’ve got a lot of connections, I have a lot of respect for Marty’s program, and he’s got a lot of respect for our program.

“What I always look at it is when you play somebody you respect, it’s a little less bitter when you lose and the other team going on is one you respect. You want them to do well. We were prepared either way for whatever happened. Fortunately we played well enough to get the win.”

North Linn’s full-court pressure defense is difficult for opponents to prepare for, and it proved a large factor in this game. Wapsie Valley (20-5) turned it over 26 times, as North Linn (24-0) ran to a 20-13 lead after a quarter and a 38-24 edge at halftime.

Wapsie players repeatedly stopped their dribble just before getting to half court or right after getting over half court, inviting a double team. The Warriors did lose a ball-handling guard to injury just before the postseason began.

“Our style is up and down, we’re going to try and wear them out,” said North Linn’s Tate Haughenbury, who had a team-high 20 points. “We know that we start getting tired, they’re way more tired than we are. It’s a little bigger court here, so we were trying to get them to go up and down, force the tempo. The more possessions, the more chance we feel we’ve got to win.”

Ben Wheatley had 14 first-half points, finishing with 17, though he was a guy Wapsie Valley decided to face guard much of the second half. Big 6-foot-7 Warriors center Mason Harter stayed in the lane most of the time, leaving North Linn guard Breckyn Betenbender wide open on the perimeter.

He missed his first four 3-point attempts in the half, but hit his next couple and ended up making four overall, scoring 14 points. Drew Ries came off the bench and made a couple of open corner treys as well, as North Linn broke open the game.

“I missed the first few, but I could hear Mr. (Travis) Griffith, our assistant coach, yelling ‘Keep shooting. Keep shooting. Have the confidence,’” Betenbender said “I got one to fall, and I started getting that confidence and making my shots.”

Andrew Westpfahl led Wapsie Valley with 16 points, while Harter had a double-double of 15 points and 16 rebounds. He led the state in boards.

North Linn plays ninth-ranked Madrid (22-2) in a state tournament quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines a week from Monday at 2:05 p.m.. The Lynx know they’ll be the 1A field’s second seed, behind Grand View Christian.

They beat GVC in last year’s championship game and have been in the finals in either 1A or 2A five years in a row. No pressure, boys.

“It’s incredible,” Haughenbury said. “Obviously here it seems like if you don’t go to state, you’re not good at your sport or whatever, and that’s not the case at all. We’re very fortunate, it’s been a really good run here. I’m very proud of this whole community. We’ve got a lot of support behind us, and we’re just going to go out and do our part.”

AT MANCHESTER

WAPSIE VALLEY (51): Casey O’Donnell 3-10 2-2 10, Mason Harter 6-6 3-3 15, Hunter Kane 0-1 2-2 2, Andrew Westpfahl 6-16 1-1 16, Kane Schmitz 1-4 0-0 2, Benton Hynde 2-2 0-0 6, Traeton Sauerbrei 0-0 0-0 0, Justus Kelley 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Richards 0-0 0-0 0, Manny Huebner 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Buzynski 0-0 0-0 0, Drew Sauerbrei 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-40 8-8 51.

NORTH LINN (72): Ty Pflughaupt 1-6 0-0 2, Tate Haughenbury 8-17 4-9 20, Ben Wheatley 5-12 3-4 17, Mason Bechen 4-10 1-1 11, Breckyn Betenbender 5-13 0-0 14, Jake Van Etten 0-0 2-2 2, Cole Griffith 0-0 0-0 0, Drew Ries 2-4 0-0 6, Hayden Schmidt 0-0 0-0 0, Grant Reckhemmer 0-0 0-0 0, Cael Benesh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-62 9-16 72.

Halftime - North Linn 38, Wapsie Valley 24. 3-point goals - Wapsie Valley 7-17 (O’Donnell 2-6, Westpfahl 3-7, Schmitz 0-2, Hyde 2-2), North Linn 12-32 (Pflughaupt 0-3, Haughenbury 0-2, Wheatley 4-7, Bechen 2-4, Betenbender 4-12, Ries 2-4). Rebounds - Wapsie Valley 30 (Harter 16), North Linn 24 (Bechen 7). Total fouls - Wapsie Valley 14, North Linn 11. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Wapsie Valley 26, North Linn 8.

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