North Linn back on top: Lynx beat Bellevue Marquette for 1A boys’ state basketball championship

DES MOINES — Coaches know, and Mike Hilmer knew his North Linn team was not a state championship contender part way through this boys’ basketball season.

Maybe not a contender for the state tournament. Despite being top ranked and rolling through the competition per usual.

There was a game in which the coach was especially perturbed. North Linn won it handily, but it played what he thought was a very poor second half.

“I quit doing scouting reports for two games,” Hilmer said Friday afternoon, after North Linn beat Bellevue Marquette, 57-56, for the Class 1A title at Wells Fargo Arena. “I said I’m not going to waste my time if you guys aren’t going to execute them. I don’t care what the score is, we’re not playing against the scoreboard, we’re playing against our potential.”

A loss to Alburnett followed, then there was a game at the end of the regular season against Dunkerton that North Linn won but still wasn’t doing the things Hilmer wanted it to do.

“From that day on, these kids locked in,” he said.

Locked in and ended up winning it all. North Linn (26-1) overcame a five-point deficit late in the third quarter to beat Marquette (27-2) for the second time this season.

The Lynx won the late regular-season game, 69-60. They got way ahead early, led by double figures at halftime and withstood a Marquette rally.

This game was expectedly well different. North Linn led by five after the first quarter and by three at halftime, but Marquette got on an offensive roll in the third behind guard Kannon Still, who had three 3-pointers. The Defenders went up 42-37 on a Spencer Roeder inside hoop late in the frame.

“We’ve had some really tough games this year,” said North Linn’s Breckyn Betenbender. “We were just telling ourselves we’ve got to stay composed.”

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Composure helped North Linn come back, as did Mason Bechen and Jake Van Etten. They scored 19 of their team’s final 20 points, helping the Lynx forge a 44-all tie after three quarters, then eventually go ahead by four, 55-51, with just over a minute left.

Unheralded undersized forward Van Etten had nine of his 11 points in the second half, on free throws and hard drives on the interior. He came in averaging eight points a game.

“Honestly, Coach just told us they were going to be helping a lot off Mason,” Van Etten said. “I knew if I had a (certain) defender on me, I could go to the hoop on him. That’s what I did. Luckily, a couple of them fell in.”

Junior guard Bechen was by far the best player in the 1A portion of this tournament and accordingly received MVP honors on the all-tourney team. His repeated drives to the hoop just could not be stopped, and he finished with a game-high 24 points.

“Playing since second grade, growing up with these guys, going to school with them, being friends on the court and teammates, man, it’s just a blessing,” Bechen said.

“Both teams played great defense,” Hilmer said. “We just had one guy they couldn’t stop, and that’s the difference in the ballgame.”

Bechen made one of two free throws with 23.9 seconds left to put NL up 57-54. The Lynx defended Marquette well on the last possession, with a well-defended 3 airballing, Marquette’s Roeder scoring on a putback right before the buzzer to provide the final margin.

Roeder had 17 points and Still 16 to lead Marquette.

This was the eighth straight state tournament appearance for North Linn, its unprecedented seventh consecutive appearance in a championship game. The school is now 3-5 in those games.

This one avenged a loss to Grand View Christian last year.

“We just wanted to come down and prove we could do what all the other senior guys have done,” said Betenbender, who had 11 points, all in the first half. “The start of the year was a little shaky for us, and I feel like there were some doubters out there, for sure. It feels good to prove to everybody that we could do it ... I knew that we’d come together.”

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Photos: North Linn vs. Bellevue Marquette in Class 1A boys’ basketball state championship

North Linn 57, Bellevue Marquette 56

AT WELLS FARGO ARENA

BELLEVUE MARQUETTE (56): Caden Kettman 4-7 2-4 11, Isaac Brinker 2-7 0-0 4, Spencer Roeder 6-11 4-6 17, Kannon Still 6-10 0-0 16, Eli Scott 1-3 0-0 2, Jacob Litterer 3-4 0-0 6, Louis Gonner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-43 6-10 56.

NORTH LINN (57): Ty Pflughaupt 2-7 2-4 6, Jake Van Etten 5-9 1-4 11, Mason Bechen 10-18 4-5 24, Cole Griffith 1-3 0-0 2, Breckyn Betenbender 5-9 0-0 11, Drew Ries 0-5 1-2 1, Hayden Schmidt 1-1 0-0 2, Cael Benesh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-52 8-15 57.

Halftime - North Linn 30, Marquette 27. 3-point goals - Marquette 6-14 (Still 4-6, Roeder 1-4, Kettman 1-2, Litterer 0-1, Gonner 0-1), North Linn 1-13 (Betenbender 1-3, Bechen 0-4, Pflughaupt 0-2, Ries 0-3). Rebounds - Marquette 31 (Roeder 14), North Linn 22 (Bechen 7). Total fouls - Marquette 20, North Linn 13. Fouled out - Litterer. Assists - Marquette 9 (Scott 6), North Scott 6 (Bechen 5). Turnovers - Marquette 18, North Linn 7.

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