Entering Tuesday night, the Norwalk boys basketball team had lost five straight games against Dallas Center-Grimes, including a 57-46 decision on January 3 and two defeats last year that featured a combined seven overtimes.
Courtesy of some late-game shooting heroics by sophomore Cameron Thomas, that streak is officially over.
Thomas buried the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:30 left in overtime and later added a clutch offensive rebound to help the Class 4A 9th-ranked Warriors outlast the Mustangs 67-64. Redek Born hit two free throws with 8.1 seconds left in OT and Braeden Carlson blocked Jonathan Howard’s last-second three-point attempt to preserve the win.
The Norwalk boys extended their winning streak to nine games, improving to 13-3 overall and 8-3 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. Earlier Tuesday night, the Norwalk girls led top-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes after a quarter but ended up on the short end of a 75-40 decision, falling to 4-14 overall and 2-9 in conference play. Both games were carried live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3).
The Warrior boys’ latest victory was made even sweeter by a valiant comeback that allowed overtime to happen. Norwalk trailed 37-21 at halftime, then outscored DC-G 22-14 in the third quarter, 18-10 in the fourth and 6-3 in the extra session. Carlson, who scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, forced OT on a tough bank shot with :30 left in regulation.
Norwalk head coach Aaron Pelzer tells KNIA-KRLS Sports that his team’s latest win was all about mental toughness.
“We dug ourselves a huge hole, and I was just proud because that’s not a game that you even fight back into if you’re not tough as heck, and that’s one of the things that we hang our hats on is toughness,” Pelzer said. “We’ve been able to show it when things were going well the last eight games, and I was really proud of the fact that we were able to still be really tough on a night when things didn’t start out going our way. And actually those are the nights you need it more.”
Born scored 14 of his 16 points after halftime, Aidan Harder had 10 points and Jack Brown and Thomas both made three three-pointers for nine points. Calix Cahill led a balanced DC-G attack with 15 points and Howard scored 13. The Mustangs dropped to 9-7 overall.
The Norwalk girls built an early 12-7 lead on Tuesday, but the Fillies showed that they are the number one-ranked team in Class 4A for a reason with tremendous execution on offense the rest of the way. Avery Thomas made four three-pointers for the Warriors and tied Bailey Birmingham for team-high honors with 12 points. Braelyn Clark chipped in eight.
Finley Fitzgerald tallied 16 points while Vanessa Bickford and Emma Miner scored 14 each for the Fillies, who improved to 15-3.
Both Norwalk teams return to action Friday night at Grinnell.