The Greene County basketball teams followed a pair of Saturday evening losses to the Carroll Tigers in Carroll with losses to the Roland-Story Norse in Story City Monday evening.
The Ram girls weren’t a match for the Norse, rated by MaxPreps at 16th in Class 3A. The Rams lost, 40-24, but the score shows their improvement as a team since they first played the Norse in December. In that game, the Norse more than doubled the Rams; the finals score was 55-23. In Monday’s game, the Rams scored at their season average and held the Norse to eight points below their season average.
The Rams were behind by one point, 6-5, two minutes into the game. The Rams didn’t score again in the quarter until Madison Hayes made a free throw after a missed shot on the buzzer. The score was 12-6 when the quarter ended.
The Norse scored another 10 points before Brianna Osterson made a pair of free throws with two minutes left to play in the quarter. She made a field goal with a minute left for the only Ram points in the quarter. The Rams were down 23-10 at intermission.
The score was 31-17 after three quarters en route to the 40-24 loss.
Brianna Habben scored nine points, Lily Muir scored six, Osterson scored four, Kassie Lamoureux and Izzie Bravard scored two points each and Hayes scored one.
As in many games, the Rams’ ball handling gave the opponents the advantage. The Rams committed 26 turnovers while the Norse committed 10. The Norse made 21 of their points from 3-point range, shooting from afar 31 times and making seven of them. The Rams shot from 3-point range five times and made none of them.
The Norse are now 15-5 overall and 10-3 in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. The Rams are 1-19 overall and 1-12 in the HOIAC.
The Ram boys, after trailing most of the game and sometimes by as many as 16 points, came to within two points midway through the fourth quarter but couldn’t come up with the win.
Like their female classmates, the Norse were mighty from 3-point range, particularly in the first half. The Norse made five tres in the first quarter and four more in the second quarter. They finished the game making 13 of 41 3-point shots for 42 percent. They average 7 long buckets per game. The Rams finished the game with seven of 19 3-point baskets for 37 percent. Four of them had Trey Hinote’s name on them, with Carter Morton claiming two and Nick Breon adding one.
The Rams were ahead 16-15 with less than two minutes to play in the first quarter. They were down 21-1 at the end of the quarter. The Norse started the second quarter with eight unanswered points; the Rams didn’t recover. The score was 39-24 at the end of the first half.
The Norse’ scoring pace slowed in the third quarter and the Rams were able to shrink their deficit to seven points, 50-43 at the end of the quarter.
Morton kicked off the fourth quarter with a 3-point basket, his first of the game. The Rams played sharp, the Norse’ shooting cooled, and it was a two-point game 58-56 midway in the quarter. With 1:30 to play Hinote put up a pair of free throws and the score was 64-61. Rather than playing the clock, R-S made a tres with 15 seconds to play to go up 67-61. They finished the game with three free throws for the 70-61 win.
For the game, the Rams shot better from the floor, making 21 of 42 shots for 50 percent. The Norse shot at 44 percent from the floor, but only 10 of their 57 shots were from 2-point range. The Rams also lost in turnovers at 12, while the Norse committed only seven turnovers for the game.
Hinote scored half his team’s points at 31. He was perfect at the line at seven for seven. Carter Morton scored 11 points. Tyler Miller fouled out of the game with 2:39 to play in the fourth quarter. He scored eight points and was tagged with a technical foul in the third quarter. Nick Breon scored seven points and John Rosado of Xavier Hayes both made two points.
The Rams are 7-14 overall and 4-9 in the conference. The Norse are 9-10 overall and 6-7 in the conference.
The Rams finish the regular season with a Mega Night at Alleman vs North Polk. The North Polk girls are rated #2 in Class 3A in the MaxPrep rankings.
