Des Moines, IA- The closest game of the quarterfinals tends to be the 4-seed versus 5-seed game and for three quarters the Winfield-Mt. Union and Lynnville-Sully contest was close. The Wolves went on to win 54-37 after a dominating fourth quarter.
Head coach Klay Edwards said the strength of his squad rested on their defense and the Wolves were tenacious to say the least, limiting the Hawks to just two points in the second quarter and 37 for the whole game against a team that usually puts up 64 points a game.
The first quarter was a slog for both offenses with Winfield-Mt. Union scoring only 7 points on 23.1% shooting from the field. Cam Buffington caught fire in the second quarter as he had 13 points at halftime, but the Hawks had battled back to make it a 21 to 18 lead at half for the Wolves.
Corder Noun Harder carried the Hawks in the first half, but much like the team in the second half went quiet with only 5 of his team leading 14 points coming in the second half.
Buffington continued his dominate performance in the second half as every one of his shots, no matter how acrobatic, fell as he finished with 21 points and nine rebounds. Buffington talked about amazing it feels to represent the community,
“Yeah, it means everything to me. One thing I told the whole team, you know what being at the Dome for football and you know, a lot of us are on the state track teams, you know, like we’ve performed, like at every major state event. So, I mean, we could come in here, you know, no nerves to just play, you know? And that’s what a lot of I mean Coach should just come in. Just play loose, just have fun.”
Yet, entering the fourth quarter the Wolves nursed only a 32 to 26 lead after Lynnville-Sully was able to hang around. That prompted a 17 to 0 run in the fourth quarter after Carter Loyd scored all 12 of his points in the second half and Jake Edwards went 3 for 4 from downtown to finish with 9 points in the game.
Abram Edwards helped lead the defensive charge with four of the team’s nine blocks as he also cashed in for 9 points. For coach Edwards it reminded him of Abram growing up and working on his post moves on the homemade court.
A feeling of family and community permeated throughout everyone’s talk after the game and for coach Edwards it was nice to bring home a win,
“You know it’s been a while since we’ve had somebody back up here and not just for Winfield, but I think for like Southeast Iowa, we’ve had. We’ve had teams get up here a decent amount here recently and nobody could just come away with a win. There’s been some good games, but just just the fact that we represent southeast Iowa, the Super Conference, the North Division and you know, bring back a win to Southeast Iowa. It feels really good.”
Winfield-Mt. Union will now take on #1 North Linn on Wednesday, March 6th, at 5:30 pm in the Class 1A semifinals. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will have the call with the pregame show at 5:15 pm.
Total Points
WMU: Buffington 21, Loyd 12, J. Edwards 9, A. Edwards 9, Hemsworth 3
L-S: Noun Harder 14, Miller 9, Sieck 6, Van Dyke 5, Maston 3