Sports 19 February 2019

Chickasaws stun top-seed Crestwood for district title

All that mattered Tuesday night was the New Hampton boys basketball team believed, and now the Chickasaws are one win away from going to their first state tournament in a decade.
Tristan Sweitzer scored 23 points and freshman Drake Wemark added 14 as New Hampton stunned top-seeded Crestwood 50-36 to win a Class 2A district championship game.
New Hampton improved to 12-11, climbing above the .500 mark for the first time since Dec. 8, and will play South Hamilton team that improved to 20-1 with a 71-54 win over Garner-Hayfield-Ventura in Saturday’s substate game at Mason City.
Crestwood, the Northeast Iowa Conference champion that beat the Chickasaws by a combined 45 points in two games earlier this season, ended the season 14-8.
“Everyone in the locker room thought we were going to win and when I asked them, they said it’s going to be like a 10-point game,” Sweitzer said. “We’ve just really come together the last week or so and this just feels awesome.”
New Hampton built a 25-20 halftime lead, but the Chickasaws had been there and done that before — taking a 28-27 halftime lead against the Cadets on Feb. 4 in a 72-42 loss.
This night was different, however, as senior Tanner Lane buried two big 3-points in the third quarter as New Hamtpon took a 40-32 lead.
And when Sweitzer buried a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, New Hampton had a 43-32 lead. The Cadets would cut the deficit o single digits, but each time, New Hampton had an answer.
But if their was a hallmark to this win, it was defense.
New Hampton held Crestwood’s Zackary Lane, who came into the game averaging 17.4 points a game and had torched New Hamtpon for 51 points in the two regular season games, to just eight.
“Our defense was just lights out,” New Hampton coach Ryan Rausch said. “I mean guys that didn’t score — the Nolan Howard, the Conner Rochfords, everyone really — were just as big for us as Tristan and Drake and the guys that did because defense, that’s what won it for us.”
— For more on this story, see the Feb. 22 Tribune
 

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