Cards fall at home to strong Raiders team

LEON – It was a dogfight between Class 1A No. 8 Mount Ayr and Central Decatur Thursday night, with both sides battling out in a Pride of Iowa Conference matchup that saw the No. 1 and No. 3 team in the conference square off with each other.

The CD boys were unable to hold off the Raiders on their home court, falling in a 65-48 final.

Knowing how important the game was in the quest for another conference championship, Central Decatur head coach Zack Clark was candid in how the loss affects the next couple of weeks for CD.

“We look at our schedule and know that this is a big time game,” said Clark. “... In our experience of conference play and conference championships, you’ve got to get up for every game and if you lose that big game you can’t let it get too big that one loss keeps you out of it. ... We don’t control our own destiny now, ... we just have to take care of our business and see what’s there at the end.

“We prepare because we know we’re playing a really good team, and we know it matters to the conference standings. But we just played a really good basketball team and we’re going to play some more really good teams, so that’s our focus,” said Clark.

Early lead,
trailing late

The Cardinals jumped out ahead of the Raiders early, leading 14-13 through the first quarter after Mount Ayr’s Dawson Frost scored to close the gap to one before the buzzer.

Two free throws to start the second quarter from Isaac Grose changed the lead to 15-14 Mount Ayr, putting wind in its sails. A score to tie and then back-to-back buckets from Grose gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the night at six, 27-21.

From then on, Central Decatur did its best to claw back at Mount Ayr, but nothing came of it. CD closed the deficit and took back a one-point lead on consecutive 3-point shots from Matthew Boothe and Haden Leymaster, but nine straight points put the Raiders ahead and a well-traveled visiting crowd behind them.

It was a 22-12 third quarter that helped sway the game as Mount Ayr rolled on for its seventh conference victory.

Leading scorer Michel Evertsen finished with 17 points, grabbing six rebounds and assisting four scores in the loss.

Cardinal interior defender Cole Pedersen was working overtime Thursday night, battling a Raiders team that could score from anywhere on the floor with anyone. The prolific offense was a problem all night for Clark and his Cardinals.

“We told Pedersen he was kind of on his own in there because we couldn’t get too far away from shooters,” said Clark. “They (Mount Ayr) put a ton of pressure on you defensively because they can spread you out and attack off the bounce. They can hit threes and hit post and score in there. ... A breakdown is usually a basket.”

With both offenses historically running a high-tempo offense, Clark said the emphasis was not to make it a race against the Raiders.

“We didn’t want to make it a track meet with them. We didn’t think we could keep up in that,” said Clark. “... We talked about offensively getting a good shot and moving the ball and making them work. What we couldn’t do was turn it over or have a run out in transition because when they get going in transition they just score like crazy.”

The Cardinals had 12 points from Pedersen. He grabbed seven rebounds and assisted three.

Boothe scored nine and grabbed two rebounds. Kolby Hewlett and Leymaster also had two rebounds each.

UP NEXT – The Cardinals get back into conference play this week, playing Bedford Tuesday (Jan. 21) on the road at 6 p.m. and Friday night on the road against Nodaway Valley at 6 p.m.