North Linn makes it 6 boys’ state basketball appearances in a row

MANCHESTER — The North Linn boys’ basketball team is headed back to a place in which it has just a wee bit of familiarity.

Let’s just say that Des Moines has become Troy Mills west.

“I like to think of it as we’ve got some more home games,” guard Austin Hilmer said, after his second-ranked Lynx fought past Edgewood-Colesburg, 51-38, in a Class 1A substate final Saturday night at West Delaware High School. “Us seniors, we’ve been there quite a bit, we’re pretty comfortable down there. So we’ll see who we’ve got now, prepare like we always do, and, hopefully, we’ll be down there all week.”

This is six consecutive trips to the state tournament for North Linn. Seniors Hilmer, fellow starter Cade Haughenbury and reserves Gunner Vanourney, Tate Collum and Trey McEnany have been part of teams that already have played nine games at Wells Fargo Arena, three consecutive state championship games, to be exact.

State tourney game number 10 will come a week from Monday, a 1A quarterfinal against North Mahaska (20-5). Another senior starter, Dylan Kurt, transferred in from Independence for his sophomore season, so this will “only” be his seventh game at The Well.

“They made it three years in a row and people say, ‘Ah, those seniors (they’ll get back in),’” said North Linn Coach Mike Hilmer. “But they don’t realize how hard it is to get down there.”

These teams split a pair of regular-season games, with Ed-Co ending North Linn’s 107-game regular-season win streak just before Christmas. Speaking of seniors, Ed-Co had an amazing 13 of them.

This game was just like the previous two: a physical, grind-it-out affair that the winner literally felt like it was a survivor. North Linn (24-1) led by a deuce after one quarter, with Austin Hilmer’s heavily contested 3-pointer just before the buzzer giving the Lynx a 28-23 halftime edge.

Only six total points were scored in the third, four by North Linn and two by Ed-Co. North Linn led by 12 early in the fourth quarter, with Ed-Co (21-4) making one last push, a Konner Putz free throw making it 40-37 with 2:48 left.

It was still 42-38 with 2:06 left. The Vikings could get no closer.

“We knew what we had to do to win this game,” said Ed-Co’s Jack Wiskus. “We executed for the most part. At parts we didn’t, and that came back to bite us. We got down, brought it back, but I guess we just couldn’t finish it out.”

Hilmer finished with a game-high 19 points. Tate Haughenbury added 15 and Kurt 13 for North Linn.

“Ed-Co is a really physical team,” Kurt said. “We knew it was going to be physical, we had practiced for that. I feel it was more physical than we expected, actually. But we played pretty well.”

Konner Putz had eight points to lead Ed-Co, with Wiskus and Kiernan Hansel adding seven.

“All we wanted was an opportunity. We got it,” said Ed-Co Coach Justin Olind. “We missed a couple of free throws and a layup, which would have helped. there. Then they made some plays. We just couldn’t get it back in and make one more run at it.”

AT MANCHESTER

ED-CO (38): Weston Rowcliffe 2-4 0-0 4, Mason Ashline 3-3 0-0 6, Jack Wiskus 3-7 0-0 7, Korey Putz 2-6 1-1 6, Konner Putz 2-6 2-4 8, Kiernan Hansel 2-4 3-4 7, Avery Wessel 0-1 0-0 0, Landin Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Nathan Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Zander Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Ike Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Lance Voss 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-31 6-9 38.

NORTH LINN (51): Cade Haughenbury 0-0 2-2 2, Tate Haughenbury 4-6 7-7 15, Dylan Kurt 5-8 2-3 13, Ben Wheatley 1-5 0-0 2, Austin Hilmer 7-11 3-5 19, Mason Bechen 0-1 0-0 0, Ty Pflughaupt 0-0 0-0 0, Gunner Vanourney 0-1 0-0 0, Tate Collum 0-0 0-0 0, Trey McEnany 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-32 14-17 51.

Halftime - North Linn 28, Ed-Co 23. 3-point goals - Ed-Co 4-13 (Wiskus 1-5, Korey Putz 1-3, Konner Putz 2-5), North Linn 3-10 (Kurt 1-1, Wheatley 0-3, Hilmer 2-4, Bechen 0-1, Vanourney 0-1). Rebounds - Ed-Co 19 (Ashline, Wiskus 5), North Linn 16 (T. Haughenbury 7. Total fouls - Ed-Co 16, North Linn 13. Fouled out - Konner Putz. Turnovers - Ed-Co 20, North Linn 10.

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