DES MOINES – And then there was one – Montezuma!
The Braves dictated the pace of play, withstood a late game surge by North Linn, and beat the Lynx 44-41 to win the school’s third boys state basketball title, but first since 1990.
Senior Cam Johnson made both ends of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with 11.1 seconds left to push the Braves’ lead to three points then they held their breath as Austin Hilmer’s shot from the corner hit the front of the rim and rolled away.
The game started at noon on Friday, March 12, in Wells Fargo Arena. It will go on forever, in the minds of the Montezuma faithful.
Braves Trey Shearer, Eddie Burgess and Cole Watts were named to a five-member all-tournament team, with Shearer as the captain. Later in the day, Shearer was named most valuable players of the entire tournament, all classes.
“This is awesome,” Braves Coach Derrick Dengler told Chris Varney of KGRN Radio after the game. “I can’t believe how blessed I am to work and coach in this community.”
What decided this game?
“Defense,” said Dengler. “The guys really bought in. They have toughness and they are great teammates,” he said.
Montezuma led 12-8 after one quarter and 27-19 at halftime, after leading by as many as 13 points just 2:15 before intermission.
North Linn double-teamed Shearer during second half play, and managed to hit some shots against Montezuma’s swarming defense.
The Braves led 34-30 through three periods. Montezuma never yielded the lead, even though the Lynx came to within one point several times during the fourth quarter.
“We knew that North Linn was too good of a team not to make a run,” said Braves senior Trey Shearer. “So, we pulled the string a little harder. We did all the little things we could. Our guys kept moving, didn’t force things. We stayed in the moment.”
North Lynn, 27-0 coming in, was the top-seeded team, meaning number seven Montezuma beat the top three seeded teams at state to win the championship.
Trey Shearer scored 13 points for the Braves and Cole Watts had 10. Eddie Burgess scored eight, in addition to dominating the boards (12 rebounds) and getting a key block against North Linn scoring ace Austin Hilmer with 2.6 seconds left in the game.
Burgess injured the same right leg he hurt in the football semifinals game with 3:24 left in the half, and had to come out. He already had nine of his game-high 12 rebounds, and was a menace to any North Linn shot attempts from in close. He already had blocked three shots and was saving a fourth, possibly a game-changer, for last.
Burgess came back less than two minutes later, not at full strength, but the Braves will take any level of strength Burgess can muster, thank you. He played the rest of the way and made a difference because he knows where to be on the court, what to do and when to do it.
“Eddie just banged his knee pretty hard. I’m thinking it scared him a little,” Dengler told us.
At halftime, the Braves were shooting 50 percent from the field, to just 26 percent by the highest scoring Class 1A offense in the state. Austin Hilmer and Dylan Kurt, two of their big scorers, had four points each as the Braves led by eight points at halftime.
North Linn turned up the defensive heat at the start of the third quarter. A double-team on Trey Shearer made it difficult to get the ball to him. Burgess called North Linn, “one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever played against.”
The Braves showed patience on offense. Trey Shearer threw a precise pass from out front to Burgess on the baseline, who scored a basket to push Montezuma’s lead to 31-24 with 4:04 left in the third quarter. “Keeping the lead was critical,” Dengler told us. The Braves played with the lead for just over 27 minutes.
North Linn came with full court pressure, but forward Cam Johnson released early, and North Linn was tardy picking him up. Twice, Johnson scored on layups and the Braves took a 40-35 lead into the final five minutes of the game.
The Lynx missed some shots that were heavily contested by the Montezuma defense. But a couple of unforced turnovers against the Braves, helped by Tate Haughenbury’s score inside, cut the lead to one point for the second time, this time at 40-39, with 2:56 left to play.
The score held until a timeout with 1:18 left. North Linn’s Ben Wheatley had a good look at a three from the right corner, but it missed and Watts rebounded.
North Linn had a couple of fouls to give before Montezuma could shoot free throws. They were given, and it was Braves ball with 31 seconds left. Burgess drove, was fouled, and made two on the one-and-one, to push it to 42-39 with 25.2 seconds left.
The Braves didn’t heavily defend Hilmer on the next trip, and he scored on a lefthand layup with 12.8 seconds left, to cut it to 42-41.
Montezuma moved with confidence up the floor, then Burgess passed to Johnson who again was open on the left side, and North Linn fouled with with 11.1 seconds left. This is when Johnson calmly drained both free throws, to make it 44-41.
North Linn had one possession left, “and those last seven seconds got scary,” Trey Shearer told Varney. “We just kept our hands up.” That worked especially well for Burgess, who managed to jump high enough to block Hilmer’s corner trey out of bounds.
Now, 2.6 seconds remained. The Lynx got it to Hilmer again. He stepped between Burgess and Trey Shearer, and launched another shot – although replay showed he may have had one foot on the line. Whether it was we’ll never know, because the ball hit the rim and bounced safely to Watts as the buzzer sounded.
“Our defense was pretty much our base defense,” Dengler said. “We asked Cam Johnson, Masin Shearer, Owen Cook and Gavin Strong to guard their best offensive players. Eddie (Burgess) took their primary post player, which left Trey (Shearer) and Cole (Watts) to play great help defense and rebound,” said the coach. “Our defense has been defined by great effort all season and it definitely carried us in this game.”
“I’m speechless,” Burgess said later.
“I’m shaky,” Watts told Varney. “But, it’s one of the best feelings ever. I’m overwhelmed. North Linn is a great young team. But I love every bit of our team. They’re the reason I’m a state champ now.”
Montezuma shot .459 from the field, to .340 by North Linn. The Braves owned a 28-23 margin in rebounds. The Braves also blocked four shots, all by Burgess.
Tate Haughenbury scored 13 points to lead the Lynx, while Austin Hilmer scored 11. North Linn closed at 27-1. Their only blemishes the last two seasons were championship game losses, last year in Class 2A.
The Braves finished a magical 25-2 season by knocking off two teams were unbeaten at the time and a third that had just one loss.
“Cole (Watts) and I talked about this (winning at state) since we were little,” Trey Shearer said. “Cole deserves this more than anyone.” Shearer said being named captain of the all-tournament team, “is super cool. But, I couldn’t do what I do without my teammates.”
“I’m just so proud of the boys,” Dengler said. “They battled all season, through injuries, dealing with COVID and everything that went through this year. I’m very proud of all of our guys for battling and making big plays when it mattered.”
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montezuma 12 15 7 10 – 44
North Linn 8 11 11 11 – 41
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE
MONTEZUMA (44)
Cam Johnson 2-2, 2-2, 2, 6. Masin Shearer 2-6, 1-2, 1, 5. Cole Watts 4-10, 0-0, 3, 10. Trey Shearer 5-10, 2-2, 1, 13. Eddie Burgess 3-4, 2-2, 3, 8. Owen Cook 1-3, 0-0, 1, 2. Gavin Strong 0-1, 0-0, 1, 0. Camden Michalek 0-1, 0-0, 0, 0. TOTALS – 17-37, 7-8, 12, 44.
NORTH LINN (41)
Ben Wheatley 3-9, 0-0, 3, 8. Cade Haughenbury 1-5, 0-0, 2, 2. Dylan Kurt 2-8, 2-2, 3, 4. Austin Hilmer 5-14, 0-0, 3, 11. Tate Haughenbury 5-11, 3-4, 2, 13. Gunner Vanourney 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. Kaleb Kurt 0-0, 0-0, 0, 0. TOTALS – 16-47, 5-6, 14, 41.
Line score legend: Field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, personal fouls, total points.
Turnovers: Montezuma 13, North Linn 10.
Rebounds: Montezuma 28 (Burgess 12, Watts 6, T. Shearer 3, Cook 3, team 2, M. Shearer 1, Michalek 1); North Linn 23 (C. Haughenbury 8, Hilmer 4, Wheatley 3, D. Kurt 3, T. Haughenbury 2, team 3).
Assists: Montezuma 7 (Burgess 3, Watts 2, T. Shearer 2); North Linn 7 (D. Kurt 4, Hilmer 2, T. Haughenbury 1).
Blocks: Montezuma 4 (Burgess 4); North Linn 2 (Wheatley 1, D. Kurt 1).
Steals: Montezuma 6 (Watts 2, Johnson 1, M. Shearer 1, T. Shearer 1, Burgess 1); North Linn 4 (Wheatley 2, C. Haughenbury 2).
