The boys’ state basketball tournament opened in Des Moines with an upset in the class 1A quarterfinals. Boyden-Hull went nearly six an a half minutes without scoring down the stretch but still managed to upend top ranked S-C-M-T 43-40. Leading by six with over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter the Comets went into a stall and proceeded to turn the ball over on eight of their next nine possessions.
Plagued by cold shooting the entire game SCMT could only get to within one and Boyden-Hull’s Jordan Mouw capped the scoring with a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining in the game. Mouw says he was just excited to be in this position in the first place, and was nervous, but said he just had to go to the line and “knock them down.”
Boyden-Hull won despite having about as many turnovers as shot attempts. They finished 16-of-30 from the field and committed 25 turnovers. Mouw says they were trying to do too much and throw the ball through people’s arms. S-C-M-T hit just 32 percent from the field, including only two-of 14 from three point range. The Spartans misfired on five shots in the last few minutes that could have given them the lead.
S-C-M-T coach Jordan Nelson says they had a lot of good shots, and had chances. He says on the second to last possession that had two good shots that didn’t go in. A desperation three pointer by Zach O’Connor bounced off the rim twice just before time expired. The Spartans led 25-22 at the half before the Comets opened the third quarter on a 15-4 run to take the lead for good.
Nelson says they played hard, but had a third quarter rut, fought back in the fourth quarter and fought hard. The Spartans ends the season with a record of 23-1. Boyden-Hull takes a 15-11 record into Thursday’s 1A semifinals.