Warriors Came Out to Play But Rams Had the Last Say

Kevin Tucker's picture

Glenwood advanced to the Class 3A State Basketball Semi-Final game Thursday with their 67-58 win over Norwalk. Glenwood’s win did not come easy after being down twenty points in the first half. Freshman Ryan Blum was the player of the game with seventeen points off the bench. Glenwood will play the number one seed in Cedar Rapids, Xavier on Thursday.

 

How did the Rams comeback? THEY BELIEVED

 

The Norwalk Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better start against the Glenwood Rams Thursday afternoon. The Warriors scored seven quick points to the Rams’ zero in the quarterfinal game. Norwalk would take a fourteen point lead 17-3 on Glenwood late in the first quarter as Glenwood continued to struggle from the field.

 

The first quarter buzzer sounded with Glenwood down 8-19 against Norwalk. With everything going Norwalk’s way, the Rams took a timeout with 5:22 left in the second quarter as the Warriors led Glenwood 30-12. After the timeout, Norwalk maintained their lead and went into halftime with all the momentum and a 40-22 lead over Glenwood. The Warriors finished the first half shooting 57% while the Rams only shot 25%!

 

Down eighteen points at halftime, Coach Schulte and his squad still had a lot of fight for the Well crowd. Freshman Ryan Blum caught fire and brought great emotion off the bench during the third quarter. Blum scored seven of Glenwood’s twenty-one points in the third to close Norwalk’s lead down to four (47-43). The Warriors only scored seven points in the third quarter thanks to the Rams’ defense.

 

Glenwood went into the fourth quarter with the confidence and momentum to advance. Behind great free throw shooting (18-19), intense defense and a couple of And-1’s the Rams would come from behind to win by nine 67-58.

 

The Rams finished the game shooting 38% from the floor, 26% from three point land and still found a way to win their first game at the state tournament in sixty-six years! (Defeated Grundy Center in 1952).

 

Key stats in Glenwood’s 67-58 victory over Norwalk

-Out rebounded the Warriors 32-30

 

-Only turned the ball over five times while Norwalk committed eleven turnovers

 

-Glenwood shot 18-19 from the free throw line (statistic of the game in my opinion) while Norwalk shot 22-30

 

- Glenwood’s defense held Norwalk twenty points under their season average

 

-Glenwood twenty-eight bench points while Norwalk had just two (big statistic as well)

Scoring for Glenwood

Ryan Blum 17 (6 rebounds, 2 blocks)

Andrew Blum 13 (8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks 1 steal)

Nate Mohr 11 (5 assists, 3 steals, 2 rebounds)

Zach Carr 11 (5 rebounds, 2 assists)

Christian Stanislav 8  (2 rebounds, 1 steal)

Nate Kennedy 7  (1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 assist)

 

Scoring for Norwalk

Luke Vaske 17

Tyler Endres 14

Daniel Geistler 12

Bowen Born 8

Blake Johnson 5

Tyler Johnson 2

 

#4 Glenwood 23-2 will face #1 Cedar Rapids, Xavier 19-6 on Thursday at 2:00 PM in the state semifinal game.

 

Good luck Rams, proud of you!

 

As always, GO RAMS!

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