March 28, 2024

Spartan men fall in regional final

Iowa Lakes advances with 85-73 win

ESTHERVILLE — Southwestern’s bid to return to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time since 2018 fell short Saturday in an 85-73 loss at Iowa Lakes Community College.

The Lakers (18-7) secured their first national tourney trip since the 2013 season. The tournament will be held April 20-24 in Danville, Illinois. Southwestern, which went to the national tourney two consecutive years beginning with a national championship in 2017, ends the season at 13-12.

The two teams had split a pair of regular season games and after Thursday’s semifinal victory over Ellsworth, coach Devin Kastrup said rebounding would be a key in the title game. Iowa Lakes had a 40-28 edge on the boards Saturday.

Still, the Spartans were within one possession with two minutes to play after trailing by seven at halftime. Southwestern opened the game with a 10-point lead at 19-9.

“They really have good depth and we kind of ran out of gas,” Kastrup said. “But our guys really battled to get it down to one possession in the final two minutes. We were right there the whole time with a chance to get to the national tournament. Coming out of that timeout we had three straight defensive possessions that weren’t good for us and Ryan Hall (tournament MVP) hit some tough shots for them.”

The Lakers were led by Xavier Jones with 19 points and eight rebounds Hall and Dillon Carlson each had 18 points.

Southwestern was led by James Kelley with 24 points. Kelley and teammate Donnell Johnson were both named to the all-tournament team.

In Strip’s second season, the Spartans had five wins over teams ranked in the NJCAA top 20 with no non-conference games in the season shortened by the OVID-19 pandemic.

Freshmen Joe Carney and Justin Graham will return from the starting lineup for the Spartans.

“We had a successful season and finished regional runner-up, so now we’ll try to continue that momentum and even do a little better,” Kastrup said.

Game statistics were not available at press time.

Larry Peterson

LARRY PETERSON

Former senior feature writer at Creston News Advertiser and columnist. Previous positions include sports editor for many years and assistant editor. Also a middle school basketball coach in Creston.