Hinton edges L-B 62-56

After getting off to a slow start, the Hinton boys wrapped up an exciting 62-56 victory on the road at Lawton-Bronson on Monday evening.

"It was a good game," Hinton coach Phil Skamser said. "We got off to a slow start and they got off to a bit of a faster start."

"Shooting-wise, we definitely started out very cold."

The host Eagles took advantage of the Blackhawks' slow start as they rolled to a 26-17 lead by halftime.

"I give our guys a lot of credit," Skamser said. "They hung in there and didn't panic too much. We picked things up in the second half and executed some of the things that we wanted to get done."

"Our second half was really crucial there. We scored the first six points of the second half and that got us back into it a little bit."

Skamser credits the size of the Eagles for part of his squad's early troubles. "They've got some size which gave us some problems early on," he said. "I thought Lawton played a good game and executed well. They took some things away from us."

"The layoff certainly was evident," Skamser added. "We hadn't played since December 15 and that sort of factored into it as well."

The Eagles were led by a 6-9 junior center in Corrie Schroeder, who poured in 22 points on the night.

"I thought he played really well," Skamser said.

Schroeder also led L-B in rebounds with 11.

For the Blackhawks, Dustin Kruse scored a game-high 26 points to lead the squad. The 6-3 senior shooting guard was 8-for-19 from the field - including a pair of 3's - while adding a nearly perfect performance at the charity stripe, hitting 8-of-9.

As a team, Hinton was 12-for-13 from the line. "Those were some pressure free throws that we hit too," Skamser said. "That was a good confidence builder for us."

Josh Vander Plaats - who contributed 16 points on the night - was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line.

Austin Arndt added 10 points while Tyler Stuerman kicked in six and Jordan Sitzmann added four to round out the scoring for the Blackhawks.

Vander Plaats dished out eight assists as well.

Defensively, Stuerman led the battle of the boards with 12 rebounds while Arndt added nine and Kruse had six. Vander Plaats grabbed five boards in the win.

Hinton edged L-B in the rebound battle 34-27.

The Blackhawks committed only eight team turnovers while the Eagles had 10.

"It was a good rivalry game for us," Skamser said. "We expected Lawton to play us tough tonight. In Northwest Iowa, night in and night out you're always going to have tough games."

Hinton improves to 5-0 with the win. The Blackhawks return home Tuesday to host Battle Creek-Ida Grove in a JV/varsity boys doubleheader.