Rams Ruin Linn-Mar Title Run

By John Campbell, TV9 Sports

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By John Campbell

Story Created: Mar 12, 2010 at 6:44 PM CST

Story Updated: Mar 12, 2010 at 10:17 PM CST

DES MOINES — The Linn-Mar Lions lived by the line and died by the line. All in two days.

“We just didn’t convert,” summed up Coach Chris Robertson said after his team had its 22-game win streak snapped by Southeast Polk, 41-38, in a Class 4A state tournament semifinal Friday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena. “We kind of shot ourselves out of the game.”

And not just from the free-throw line, though we’ll start there.

Linn-Mar (23-2) was an impressive 24 of 30 in its quarterfinal victory Wednesday night over Clinton, but things soured badly Friday to the tune of 10 for 20. Meanwhile, a Southeast Polk team playing without suspended starting forward Tony Sandquist went 22 of 27.

Sandquist will be back for tonight’s title game against heavily favored Ames. Linn-Mar is relegated to the consi against Sioux City East this afternoon at 1:45.

“The intensity of that game might have gotten to a few of us,” said Linn-Mar’s Marcus Paige. “But we had to get our offense to do a little more than it did tonight, especially when we were fouling as much as we did. They did a great job. They were patient, got what they wanted, got the ball in (Cody) Ingle’s hands. And they made free throws.”

Ingle is 6-foot-4 forward Kody Ingle, who managed 20 points despite hitting just three of 12 field-goal attempts. Again, you look to the line, where he hit 12 of 14.

Southeast Polk (21-3) had all of four first-half field goals but led by two, 22-20, because it made all 10 free throws.

“Not a lot of people gave us a chance,” said Ingle. “But we believed we could do it, and we got the win.”

Despite a good start precipitated by strong interior play from Darius Stokes and Will Roth, Linn-Mar could never stay offensively consistent, shooting 31.3 percent from the field in the second half. The Lions didn’t make a single 3-pointer (0 for 6), another telltale stat.

Linn-Mar’s Shane Benton missed two free throws with 42 seconds left and Southeast Polk leading, 38-36. Jake Guenther hit two biggies for SEP. with 13.1 left to extend its lead to 41-38.

Linn-Mar called timeout at midcourt with 7.7 to go, but a good double team on point guard Paige out front led to a hurried and guarded 3 attempt in the corner by Matt Bohannon that grazed the front rim.

“It looked like they were in zone, but they acted like they were in man to man, and that kind of threw us off guard,” said Bohannon, who led his team with 11 points. “We had a shot. I just ended up missing it.”

“We didn’t make a 3. We were 10 for 20 from the line, they were 22 of 27,” said Robertson. “There’s the ballgame, really, right there.”

The videos, in order, are of Linn-Mar’s final shot and interviews with Paige and Bohannon.

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