Bluejays roll in first round, 65-28

BONDURANT — Bondurant-Farrar picked the right time to break out of a three-game losing streak, blitzing Creston early in a 65-28 Class 3A Substate 8 quarterfinal game Monday night.

Coming off a one-point loss to undefeated and third-ranked Knoxville, and setbacks against Indianola and Newton, the Bluejays entered district play with a 10-11 record. Creston, 11-10 in the regular season, was coming off close losses to Harlan (60-58) and Maryville (59-53).

There was nothing close about Monday’s substate opener. The Bluejays capitalized on a quick, aggressive defense to disrupt the Creston offense in the opening minutes. The Panthers had five turnovers in the first six minutes as Bondurant-Farrar extended an early 12-6 lead to a 19-7 margin after one quarter.

A 23-4 second quarter buried Creston in a 42-11 halftime deficit. The state’s 35-point running clock mercy rule went into effect when two free throws by point guard Cole Miller made it 48-13 in the third quarter.

Bluejay senior Hudson McConnell scored a game-high 18 points and Miler added 15. Jake Hoyt finished his Panther career with a team-high 11 points.

“When it was 12-6, we threw up two terrible shots and we were turning the ball over,” Creston coach Bryce Schafer said. “It’s all about settling in, and we never got settled. They had to have 28 points off of turnovers alone. Other than Jake and Parker (Varner), our guys don’t have experience in playing in (postseason) games like this. Once they went on a run, you could see our guys get tense.”

Passes that were deflected or directly stolen allowed Bondurant-Farrar to build early momentum, the Panther coach said.

“We worked all week on their coverage of ball screens,” Schafer said. “But, we were so enthralled in trying to get the ball to the guy coming off the ball screen, instead of making the pass that would allow us to get the angle for the perfect pass. We knew they were going to hard hedge off our screens, so the slip guy was going to be available, or popping it to a shooter. In those situations you just have to swing it to the next guy who has the angle on the guy diving to the rim, but we were forcing the first pass.”

McConnell had 16 of his 18 points in the first half as the Bluejays built a 21-point lead. The Panthers were outscored 15-0 from 3-point range. Nothing was clicking, resulting in the end of the careers of seven Panther seniors — starters Brayden Schoon, Josh Schaefer, Varner and Hoyt along with reserves Tommy Sand, Tyler Riley and Casen Dryden.

Rhett Driskell, sophomore point guard who finished with three points Monday, was the lone non-senior in the starting lineup.

“We had so many close losses this year,” Schafer said. “Three or four close games go the other way, and our seed was a lot different. We easily could have been a 15-win team. To have to end on that (game), I feel really bad for them. I told them I couldn’t be prouder of the ascension of this team. I think that we were in every game during the regular season but about two. Even the Madrid game didn’t blow up until late in that game. Kuemper was obviously a phenomenal team. Our guys were competing night in and night out.”

That was not the case Monday, however. Bondurant-Farrar was in control from start to finish and now faces Des Moines Christian (16-5) in the semifinals Thursday. The Lions topped Carlisle Monday, 68-43. On the other side of the bracket, top-seeded Ballard (19-2) routed Atlantic 71-27 and North Polk advanced with an 84-39 victory over Perry.

BONDURANT-FARRAR (65) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 27 6-9 65. Hudson McConnell 7 2-2 18, Cole Miller 6 3-3 15, Jerze Simonson 4 0-0 8, Drake Pfaltzgraff 3 1-2 8, Jasper Wilson 3 0-0 6, Owen Werner 2 0-0 4, Maxson Simmons 1 0-0 3, Ryder Miller 1 0-0 3. 3-point goals — 5 (McConnell 2, Simmons 1, Pfaltzgraff 1, R. Miller 1). Team fouls — 14. Fouled out — None.

CRESTON (28) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 11 6-8 28. Jake Hoyt 4 3-4 11, Josh Schaefer 3 2-2 8, Brayden Schoon 2 0-0 4, Rhett Driskell 1 1-2 3, Tanner Ray 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — None. Team fouls — 9. Fouled out — None.