Coming out party
New Hampton trailed 60-59 Thursday night when Keagan John saw Tristan Sweitzer penetrate into the lane. The Chickasaw junior knew there was a good chance he was going to get a pass so he was ready as Sweitzer spun, saw John in the corner and hit him with the pass. “I just decided to take it,” John said, “It was just in the moment and it flowed nicely.” Did it ever as John’s 3-pointer touched nothing but twine with 9.8 seconds left to give New Hampton a 62-60 lead that turned into a 64-60 victory over Charles City. “It felt nice, I mean it felt really good, as soon as I let go of it, I knew it had a good chance,” John said. “We needed this one a lot. We needed this one just to get over the hump and kind of let ourselves know that we can play with anyone, that we can beat these good teams.” New Hampton came into the game with a 6-7 mark and a 2-3 Northeast Iowa Conference record, but for a quarter here and a half there, the Chickasaws had shown it could play with teams like Waverly-Shell Rock and Charles City. And they did it again on Thursday as New Hampton used a 15-10 second quarter to take a 27-25 halftime lead. For the full story, please see the Jan. 31 Tribune.