Spartans advance to second round
After a slow start in the first quarter of Friday’s 1A - 8 Regional Game, the Exira-EHK Spartans offense got going in the second quarter outscoring the West Harrison Hawkeyes 22-8 en route to a 71-47 victory.
“It feels good always to start off with a win in postseason,” said Junior Austin Rasmussen. “We’re 1-0 now. We’ll see what we can do. It’s going to be a tough battle against ACGC, but we’ve just got to come to play.”
It took the Spartans a few minutes to knock down their first shot, but when they did, it came courtesy of Senior Josh Nelson, followed later by a 3-pointer from Junior Bryce Brabham. The final shot of the quarter came from Senior Hawkeye Noah Birdsall on a turnaround fade away jump shot as the Spartans trailed 10-7.
Senior Spartan Cannon Hansen tied the game right away in the second quarter with a 3-point shot, followed by free throws to give the Spartans their first lead of the game.
Later in the quarter, the Spartans went on a 13-0 run starting with a layup from Sophomore Anthony Young, a 3-pointer from Owen Juhl, three consecutive shots from Nelson and a layup from Hansen leading 29-18 at halftime.
“The first quarter shots weren’t falling,” Rasmussen said. “I couldn’t hit a shot personally. We turned the ball over too much. We just knew we needed to come out and play our brand of basketball and come out and win.”
Hansen banked home a 3-pointer to start the third quarter, followed soon after with a 3-point shot from Rasmussen. Sophomore Hawkeye Keenan Foland made a 3-point shot to temporarily stop the Spartans, but the Spartans got going again especially from the 3-point line with Rasmussen, Juhl, and Freshman Blake Nelson closing out the quarter leading 51-32.
“We were kind of joking in the huddle, because I kept telling them if the shots on the outside aren’t falling, be ready to drive,” Santisteban said. “As soon as I said that, they started hitting 3’s. Maybe I should keep doing the reverse psychology thing.”
Rasmussen continued his dominant night knocking down the first four Spartans baskets to open the fourth quarter, two of which were from 3-point range. Nelson and Hansen both made 3-pointers later in the quarter as the Spartans easily cruised to victory.
They return to action Monday against the 19-2 ACGC Chargers. The Chargers are led by Senior Jathan South averaging 19 points, Senior Payton Policky averaging 13.8 rebounds, and Senior Noah Kading averaging 5.7 assists.
“They’re going to be tough as nails,” Santisteban said of ACGC. “They have a lot of good basketball players. They’re deep. They have size and length. They play in a tough conference where they just played Madrid the other night. They’ll be ready to go.”
