Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – You don’t need to look long at Solon’s season resume to see the Spartans are improved.

With four games left in the regular season the Spartans have already double their win total from a year ago, put together a three-game winning streak and need two more wins to match their combined victory count from the past two seasons.

“I think we are getting better,” second-year head coach Jamie Smith said. “Anyone that comes out and watches us can see we are improving.”

The next step for Solon is a signature win and the Spartans are getting closer to that too.

Solon played tenth-ranked Central DeWitt tight for a half a week ago and fell late to rival Regina on Saturday.

The Spartans missed another shot at a statement style win on Thursday but once again it felt like they were getting closer.

Solon pushed Maquoketa (14-3) to the limit for three quarters Thursday before falling 55-44 in a WAMAC Conference East Division contest in Solon.

“I think we are improving,” Smith said. “We did a lot of good stuff tonight we had a stretch where we got a little tired and were short on some shots and they did a good job of exploiting some of our mismatches at times.”

Maquoketa snapped a 38-all tie with a 16-1 run to end the third and start the fourth quarter to pull break open a game that was close from the outset.

Nell Sybesma had a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds for Maquoketa as the Cardinals won their sixth straight game.

MaKinley Levin had 17 points and Elly Holubar had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for Solon which dropped to 7-10 with its third straight loss.

“It’s tough, you lose three in a row and you go in the locker room and kids are a little bit down but the people in the locker room know we are getting better,” Smith said. “We have shown quite a bit of improvement.”

Solon trailed 17-14 after the opening quarter and Maquoketa took a 22-14 lead with a 5-0 burst in the opening two minutes of the second quarter but Solon answered.

The Spartans cut the lead to 24-22 with an 8-2 lead that featured 3-pointers from Holubar and Levin and trailed just 30-28 at the half.

Levin scored the final 11 points of the half for the Spartans over a span of 3:32.

“Off of the top of my head that is probably our best half offensively and defensively together,” Smith said. “I know they got a few points at the end but I thought offensively we played really, really well. We were crisp, sharp and got some good looks.”

The second half went back and forth for four minutes and Solon tied the score at 38 on a driving layup by Jenna LaDage with 4:08 left in the quarter.

That was the final field goal for the Spartans until LaDage scored in transition with 1:26 left.

Maquoketa went 6-for-6 from the free throw line during the game-clinching 16-1 run.

“They are pretty good, they ran some good stuff and took advantage of some stuff,” Smith said. “We got in a little bit of foul trouble and I think you get in some foul trouble and then you play on your heels a little bit and you end up picking up another foul because you are on your heels.”

Solon returns to action on Friday when it travels to Dyersville Beckman (7-10) and has home games against South Tama and West Delaware next week before ending the regular season at Maquoketa.

“We really don’t talk about winning or losing we just talk about getting better,” Smith said. “I know its cliched but we really do that. So, we are going to get up tomorrow and we are going to work our butts off and see what happens.”

Solon              14  14  11  5  –  44

Maquoketa     17  13  16  9  –  55

Maquoketa (55) – Addie Bowman 2-3 0-0 4, Carolyn Pickup 2-5 0-0 5, Tenley Cavanagh 1-6 2-4 4, Madi Lemke 0-1 0-0 0, Nell Sybesma 8-14 4-6 21, Autumn Dykstra 3-5 8-8 14, Abbi Strathman 3-8 1-2 7, Team 19-42 15-20 55.

Solon (44) – Claire LaDage 0-2 1-2 1, Aira Foster 0-0 0-2 0, Kaia Holtkamp 5-17 0-2 10, MaKinley Levin 5-17 5-7 17, Jenna LaDage 2-10 1-2 5, Jada Buffington 0-2 0-0 0, Elly Holubar 4-7 0-0 10, Alex Locke 0-0 1-2 1, Team 16-55 8-17 44.

3-point field goals – SOL 4-20 (C. LaDage 0-1, Holtkamp 0-2, Levin 2-9, J. LaDage 0-3, Buffington 0-2, Holubar 2-3), MAQ 2-7 (Bowman 0-1, Pickup 1-1, Cavanagh 0-3, Sybesma 1-1, Dykstra 0-1). Rebounds – SOL 37 (Holubar 10), MAQ 33 (Sybesma 10). Turnovers – SOL 15, MAQ 12. Total fouls – SOL 16, MAQ 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by becoming a member.