Entering the Iowa high school boys state basketball tournament as the No. 6 seed, Johnston came into its quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 seed Waukee Northwest with a chip on its shoulder.
That extra bit of motivation might have been enough for the Dragons, who took down the Wolves, 48-42, on Tuesday, March 10. With the win, Johnston moves on to the Class 4A semifinal against Waukee on Thursday, March 12. Tip-off is slated for 12:15 p.m.
“Yeah, it definitely added a chip to our shoulder,” said Johnston senior guard Tino Daye Jr. “We knew we had to come in and work and be the most physical team…on the court, and that would get the job done.”
Three players finished with double-digit point totals for the Dragons: Daye Jr. with 15 points, Nicare Cavil added 14 and Joshua Jenkins posted 10. Darren Grandon led the team with six rebounds, and five different players came away with a combined 11 steals.
“We knew coming in, we had to be physical with these guys, because they’re loaded – they’ve got two Power 5 guys inside,” said head coach Courtney Henderson. “We knew we had our work cut out for us. But we fought the entire game, and we came out on the winner’s side.”
The Dragons didn’t start the game strong, as Grandon missed three-straight shot attempts and then fell short on two free throws. But that didn’t stall Johnston, even after a 3-pointer from Northwest’s Mack Heitland kicked off the scoring.
Johnston turned up the defense, stealing the ball five times and ending the first quarter in a tie after getting in the way of Colin Rice’s buzzer-beater attempt. The Dragons carried that momentum in the second quarter, too, holding Northwest off the scoreboard for over two minutes while scoring seven unanswered points.
The Wolves put together a streak of their own to tie the game around the midway point of the second quarter. The Dragons, though, pulled ahead off eight-straight points from Jenkins and Daye Jr., and Johnston headed to the locker room with a 30-22 lead at halftime.
Both teams’ scoring slowed down to start the second half, with Johnston and Northwest each netting only eight points in the third. The Dragons turned the ball over three times, the Wolves turned it over four times, and Johnston held onto an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Northwest spent most of the fourth quarter slowly chipping away at Johnston’s lead, getting it as low as two points with two minutes to play. But still trailing by two points with 35 seconds on the clock, the Wolves turned to fouling to flip possession and keep the Dragons from running down the rest of the remaining time.
But Johnston took advantage of every opportunity at the foul line. Jenkins and Caleb Gbarjolo made five-of-six combined free throw attempts at the end of the game, and Northwest missed three shot attempts during those 35 seconds.
The Dragons turned over the ball fewer times – seven to Northwest’s 14 – and came away with 11 steals, seven more than the Wolves. Johnston won the battle in the paint, too, scoring 22 points to Northwest’s eight.
“They’re very well-coached,” said Northwest coach Brett Watson. “They’re going to be really, really physical with you. And points in the paint, that’s kind of the difference. The first two times we played them, we were able to score a little more in the paint.
“But they won that (metric) by 14, and that’s a huge deal when we have our height. We couldn’t take advantage of that, so I think that was the difference.”
The Wolves finish the season with a 20-5 overall record and their second-straight trip to the tournament, after finishing as runner-up last season. Rice scored 17 points, and Landon Davis finished with 11 rebounds and four steals in the loss.
“This team was very goal-driven all year,” Rice said. “Our goal wasn’t just to get here, it was to win. And it sucks that it didn’t happen. I thought we were going to win, but it doesn’t always go the way you want.”
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Johnston upsets Waukee Northwest in boys state basketball tournament
Reporting by Alyssa Hertel, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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