Cardinals start the season with a win and a loss

by Michelle Watson

There’s good nights and then there are bad nights.  The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura boys got to experience both, as they opened the season with a solid win over North Iowa and a heartbreaking loss to Forest City.

GHV 83, North Iowa 40

The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura boys basketball team seemed to pick up right where they left off last year, with a resounding win against North Iowa Tuesday night, Nov. 27.  GHV handed the Bison an 83-40 loss.

The Cardinals, who lost some key players to graduation from their successful 2017-18 season, filled in the gaps and didn’t miss a beat.

The team returns senior James Betz, who has signed to play with the University of Northern Iowa in 2019.  Betz was joined by starters Landon Dalbeck, Zach Suby, Justin Reding and Lucas Rayhons.

Betz and Dalbeck opened the game by sinking back-to-back threes.  Dalbeck sunk two more threes and Betz one more to take a 17-1 lead.  The first quarter ended with GHV leading, 22-6.

A nine-point run stretched the lead to 31-8.  Zach Suby hit two treys to end the half, 41-14.

The Bison picked it up a bit in the third quarter, scoring 21 points.  However, the Cards also had a strong offensive effort, pumping in 27 of their own.  The third quarter ended with Dalbeck hitting three fieldgoals in a row for a 68-35 lead.

The subs came in with 4:30 remaining in the game.  Hayden Hutcheson led the bench effort with five points.

“I was very pleased with the way we came out of the gate in our first game of the year,” said Coach Jake Young.  “The guys played with a ton of energy defensively, and we ran the court and shared the ball very well.”

As a team, the Cards had 17 assists and only seven turnovers.

Betz and Dalbeck led the team with 22 and 21 points respectively.  Dalbeck had some impressive stats, going 10/11 in field goals and a perfect 2/2 from the three points line.  Betz led the team in rebounds with 11, assists with four and steals with three.  He also had one blocked shot.

Also scoring in double figures was Suby with 13 and Reding with 10.

Reding was the second leading rebounder with five.  Lucas Rayhons hauled in four rebounds.

Suby, Reding and Austin Bahensky all dished out three assists.  Suby, Rayhons and Kevin Meyers all had two steals apiece.

Forest City 48, GHV 38

An ugly first half doomed the Cardinals on Friday, Nov. 30, when they traveled to Forest City.

“This game was a big test for the team.  We played the game start to finish with great effort on the defensive end, but we weren’t able to find our rhythm offensively,” said Coach Jake Young.

GHV’s offensive struggle began in the first quarter, as they could only manage to connect on free throws, and even that was a little weak.  Zachary Suby hit one and James Betz connected on three for the only points in the first period.

The second quarter wasn’t much better, as the Cardinals only collected 10 first half points. Forest City went into halftime with a 20-10 lead.

GHV made some adjustments at halftime and put in some threes to open