North Linn takes care of Woodbine, heads to state hoops tournament semifinal for 8th straight year

DES MOINES - All this time everyone has ignored the Hilmer that really, truly deserves the credit for this incredible run North Linn boys’ basketball has been on.

Sure, Mike Hilmer is the head coach, the director of perhaps Iowa’s best small-school program. His father, Bob, is the all-time winningest coach in state history and was with his son as co-coach for some time.

Mike’s son, Jake, was a Mr. Basketball for the Lynx and helped them to a championship. Younger son, Austin, was a star on another title team at North Linn.

Don’t forget the contributions of Jaci Hilmer. As a coach’s wife and player’s mom, she’s the unsung hero of this whole deal.

Then there’s little Jori Hilmer.

Mike and Jaci’s youngest child is 8 years old. North Linn has been a state tournament qualifier all eight years of her life.

After a 75-59 win Monday morning over Woodbine in a Class 1A state quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena, North Linn has been a state tournament semifinalist all eight years of her life. Just a coincidence?

She’s the lucky charm.

“And she will remind you of that,” Mike Hilmer said with a laugh. “Oh, yeah. She is well aware of the streak.”

Of course, it has taken a whole lot of people for this school located just outside Troy Mills (the smallest of small towns) for things to have gotten this way, this successful. The top-ranked, top-seeded Lynx (24-1) gradually pulled away from a tight game in the third and fourth quarters, getting a little something from just about everyone.

“It was a little rough in the first half,” said North Linn’s Jake Van Etten. “The halftime talk was a little rough. But we knew we had to come out and play our game. They’re a really good team, a really good ‘8’ seed, probably one of the best we’ve played. We just had to do what we had to do.”

Woodbine (23-3), with a lineup of all underclassmen, hung around, trailing by 10 after the first quarter and eight at halftime, scoring eight of the first nine points of the second half to pull within 34-33. But North Linn reasserted itself, going back ahead by 10 after three quarters, 56-46, and going further up in the fourth.

The Lynx made one offensive adjustment that paid off. Instead of just going right at Winterset offensively, they brought their posts up toward the free-throw line and top of the arc to try and create more inside room.

It worked, as guard Mason Bechen had 15 of his game-high 25 points in half number two and Pflughaupt had 11 of his 15. Bechen had a team-high nine rebounds and team-high five assists.

“The first half, we were ramming it down their throats,” Bechen said. “The second half, we just kind of backed it up, waited for them to come out, their defense to come out against us. That created some wide-open lanes to drive.”

“Coach Hilmer just wanted us to play better,” Pflughaupt said. “We came out a little nervous. A lot of our younger kids haven’t played down here as much. This was their first year getting a full game on the court. Wednesday, we’ve got to come in not nervous, just be ready to play. Work on defense a little more, get our press going. Our offense will come.”

Wednesday is North Linn’s semifinal against No. 5 Winfield-Mount Union (21-2). The Wolves won their Monday quarterfinal over seventh-ranked Lynnville-Sully, 54-37.

Tipoff Wednesday is 5:30 p.m.

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“I feel like (this is) just the standard meant to be met,” said Van Etten, who had an 11-point, seven-rebound game. “If you’re on the team, you want to be successful. Everyone’s goal is to get down here and do the best you can.”

Freshman Landon Blum led Woodbine with 23 points, including going 7 for 11 from 3-point range. He even banked in a pair of treys from out top/on the wing when he was on a third-quarter heater.

North Linn shot 53.1 percent from the field, was 7 of 17 from distance and 16 of 21 from the free-throw line. Cael Benesh, Hayden Schmidt and Drew Ries came off the bench to hit big 3s at different times in the game.

“You get a little nervous that you’re going to be the team that doesn’t make it down here or something like that,” Coach Hilmer said. “We try not to put any pressure on them with anything like that. But I think they feel that sometimes. The community just automatically thinks we’re going to make it ... We’re proud of the kids for getting down here. I think it’s special for anybody that gets down here. It never gets old, but it’s never easy, either. It’s just as hard to get here the eighth time as it was the first time. We’re proud of the kids.”

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AT WELLS FARGO ARENA

WOODBINE (59): Landon Blum 8-15 0-0 23, Jax Pryor 4-10 2-6 10, Carter Gruver 3-10 4-4 11, Carson Kelley 1-5 0-0 3, Brody Pryor 4-8 2-2 12, Xander Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Gavin Kelley 0-1 0-0 0, Gunner Wagner 0-0 0-0 0, Landon Fitchhorn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 8-12 59.

NORTH LINN (75): Jake Van Etten 4-5 3-6 11, Ty Pflughaupt 6-12 3-4 15, Cole Griffith 4-7 0-0 9, Breckyn Betenbender 1-3 4-4 7, Mason Bechen 8-18 6-7 25, Hayden Schmidt 1-1 0-0 3, Drew Ries 1-2 0-0 3, Cael Benesh 1-1 0-0 3, Nolan Woods 0-0 0-0 0, Braden Wheatley 0-0 0-0 0, Waylon Raue 0-0 0-0 0, Bradyn Bistline 0-0 0-0 0, Cade Garman 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Zimmerman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-49 16-21 75.

Halftime - North Linn 33, Woodbine 25. 3-point goals - Woodbine 11-28 (Gruver 1-5, Kelley 1-5, B. Pryor 2-2, Blum 7-11, J. Pryor 0-1), North Linn 7-17 (Griffith 0-2, Betenbender 1-2, Bechen 3-6, Pflughaupt 0-2, Van Etten 0-1, Benesh 1-1, Schmidt 1-1, Ries 1-2). Rebounds - Woodbine 27 (J. Pryor 7), North Linn 29 (Bechen 9). Total fouls - Woodbine 20, North Linn 13. Fouled out - J. Pryor. Assists - Woodbine 13 (Gruver 6), North Linn 12 (Bechen 5). Turnovers - Woodbine 17, North Linn 14.

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