Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – The list of what went wrong for Solon in Thursday’s substate semifinal is a long one.

The Spartans trailed by five after the first quarter and by as many as 11 in the second half.

Solon gave up a 7-0 run in the first quarter and 12-0 in the third quarter and had two scoring droughts of longer than three minutes.

The Spartans shot 41 percent from the floor, made just three of 10 free throw attempts and were outrebounded by five.

Despite it all Solon had a chance to escape with a win.

“We were right there, we had chances,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “We just didn’t make the shots. They were good looks and that’s all you can ask, we gave ourselves a chance.”

Fifth-ranked Solon missed three 3-pointers in the final 37 seconds that could have tied or given the Spartans the lead and fell to Keokuk 56-53 in a Class 3A, Substate 5 semifinal in Solon.

Keokuk (17-6) advanced to face Williamsburg (15-8) in the Substate 5 title game on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids.

Solon, which won 18 consecutive games to open the season, closed the season 21-2.

“This isn’t going to sit well with them, this wasn’t our goal,” Galpin said. “Our goal was to make it to state but we battled and gave ourselves a chance and they can rest their heads easy knowing they did everything they could to win this game.”

Solon gave itself a chance to escape late.

The Spartans cut an 11-point third-quarter deficit to eight to open the fourth and got as close as 49-48 with an 8-0 burst that featured 3-pointers from senior guards Rylen Stiegelmeyer and Jake Benzing.

Keokuk answered with back-to-back 3-pointers by juniors Brenton Hoard and Tramell Smith in the final 92 seconds to push the margin back to 55-48.

“I thought we guarded well for the most part but they hit a couple of big shots at the end of the game,” Galpin said. “We still we had chances we just came up short.”

Solon cut the lead to 55-51 on a Gehrig Turner 3-pointer and trimmed the margin to 55-53 on a steal and layup by Vince Steinbrech with 26.6 seconds left.

The Spartans forced three consecutive turnovers in the final 38 seconds but missed their final three shots, all 3-pointers that could have given Solon the lead or tied the game.

“We had opportunities to tie or take the lead and just couldn’t get it done,” Galpin said. “We didn’t have the shooting night we wanted especially from the free throw line I think we went 3-of-10 and it’s hard to win when that happens but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.”

Sophomore Jaxon Clark had 18 points and nine rebounds to lead a balanced Keokuk effort that had four players in double figures.

The 6-foot-9 Clark had 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter including eight during a 12-0 Keokuk run to start the half.

Hoard had 13 points, Diego Garcia had 12 points and Smith had 11 for the Chiefs.

Benzing had a game-high 20 points for Solon while Stiegelemeyer had 13 points and Steinbrech had 12.

“We just fell short, some shots didn’t fall for us, we had looks,” Galpin said. “They went on a 12-0 run to start the second half and we didn’t fold, we did a lot on the defensive end and just didn’t hit shots on the offensive end.”

Keokuk          13  11  22  10  –  56

Solon               8   18  12  15  –  53          

Keokuk (56) – Diego Garcia 4-9 4-5 12, Chase Eckland 0-2 0-0 0, Brenton Hoard 4-9 3-4 13, Drew Campbell 1-1 0-0 2, Tramell Smith 4-8 1-2 11, Jaxon Clark 8-11 0-0 18, Totals 21-40 8-11 56.

Solon (53) – Rylen Stiegelmeyer 5-13 0-0 13, Nolan Seagren 0-1 0-0 0, Brett White 0-0 0-2 0, Vince Steinbrech 5-10 2-6 12, Jake Benzing 7-19 1-2 20, Gehrig Turner 3-6 0-0 8, Totals 20-49 3-10 53.

3-point field goals – KEO 6-16 (Eckland 0-2, Hoard 2-7, Smith 2-4, Clark 2-3), SOL 10-25 (Stiegelmeyer 3-10, Steinbrech 0-1, Benzing 5-9, Turner 2-5). Rebounds – KEO 28 (Clark 9), SOL 23 (Steinbrech 5). Turnovers – KEO 14, SOL 10. Total fouls – KEO 11, SOL 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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