Wednesday night’s installment of Cap City action turned out the best games, if not the most comfortable conditions. The air conditioning didn’t appear to be turned on at the Valley High gym, but that didn’t deter quite a crowd from heading to West Des Moines for the games.

Fortunately for those fans, each game was well contested. Here’s a wrap up:

Coca-Cola 112, Peak Performance 109

With the score at 51-46 at the half, the first installment of Monday’s competition was set to be a close one. The joy of the Cap City League for players seems to be that they can experiment with styles, plays and ideas that their coaches would never let them try during the regular season. In this case, both teams began fouling with about seven minutes left in the second half–well before the typical coach will take that step.

With about 5:12 left to play, Iowa State freshman guard Chris Colvin (Peak) drew a foul on a nice looking layup down the middle of the lane. Some free throws would have ended the deal, but Colvin and his defender got into a tiff after play stopped, and Colvin was ejected from the game.

ISU freshman Antwon Oliver (Peak) blocked a layup by sophomore Scott Christopherson (Coke), which Christopherson didn’t like much.

Perhaps the best performance of the game came from UNC-Central guard Ashton Sauls (Coke). DMACC’s Tavaryns Gray attempted a reverse layup but missed, and Sauls appeared out of nowhere with a put-back dunk to make it 95-89 Coke. Christopherson found him for a jumper soon after, but Oliver hit a three to stay in the game.

Coke lead 109-104 when ICCC’s Jacob Petersen (Peak) hit a 3-point shot with .7 seconds remaining, and a foul simultaneously called against one of the Coke players. DMACC’s Tyler Stumme sunk both free throws, and the game was tied with .7 seconds to play.

With overtime seemingly certain, Sauls chucked a shot from beyond half court as the buzzer sounded. It went in, and Coke won 112-109.

Statistical highlights:

Coke: Sauls 32 points, 6 rebounds. Christopherson 23 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists. Jordan Clarke (Drake) 23 points, 14 rebounds. Gray 15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists.

Peak: Colvin 15 points, 8 assists. Antwon Oliver 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists. Heemskerk 23 points, 15 rebounds. Alex Dorr (ISU) 15 points, 4 rebounds. Stumme 13 points.

 

Capital City Orthopaedics 118, Medical Oncology & Hematology 111

The MOHA-Ortho game was again typical of most basketball games: the real action only happened in the second half. We start, therefore, with ISU’s Jamie Vanderbeken (MOHA) hitting a nice 3-pointer with 8:45 to play, closing Ortho’s lead to 90-84. Unfortunately for JVB, it took MOHA about 45 seconds to build its lead back to 11 points.

ISU’s Diante Garrett (MOHA) drew a foul with 3:32 to go, and split his free throws to make the score 106-103.

Sadly for DG, ISU teammate L.A. Pomlee closed the game on a roll. Pomlee (Ortho) posted up on the next possession, though, followed it up with a turnaround jumper and recorded the assist on a 3-pointer by Drake’s Ryan Wedel to give Ortho a 113-105 advantage. Then he kicked it out to William Penn’s Kris Miller for a 3-pointer at the one minute mark. ISU freshman Bubu Palo tried for a steal but couldn’t get his hand on the ball, then fouled to stop the clock with 23.5 seconds left and a 5-point margin. Wedel made both free throws to seal the win.

Statistical highlights:

Ortho: Miller 37 points, 5 rebounds. Pomlee 23 points, 9 rebounds. Scott Windom (DMACC) 23 points, 7 rebounds. Wedel 18 points, 5 assists. Ryan Sears (Creighton) 7 assists. David Smith (Drake) 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals.

MOHA: Garrett 37 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists. Vanderbeken 11 points, 6 rebounds. Nick Grant (Drake) 15 points, 8 rebounds. Bill Freeman (Ellsworth CC) 16 points, 6 rebounds. Palo 14 points, 4 assists. Miller 11 rebounds. DeAnthony Zanders (SW Minn State) 10 rebounds, 6 assists.

 

Granite Transformations 87, YMCA 86

ISU’s Dominique Buckley (YMCA) got things started with a steal and a layup early in the first half. ISU’s Marquis Gilstrap (YMCA)missed a pair of consecutive jumpers–no doubt because of the great defense of Charles Boozer (Granite)–but quickly got things turned around it what proved to be a great outing for the rookie/senior. Gilstrap found ISU’s LaRon Dendy for an ally-oop with 15 minutes left in the first half, starting a string of good plays by the pair.

Ames High’s Doug McDermott (Granite) finally got the call after multiple put-back attempts with about 7:45 to play, and sunk both free throws to cut YMCA’s lead to seven points. Dendy tried to find Gilstrap for a layup at the buzzer, but it was no good and the score stayed at 45-45 going into halftime.

Dendy had a layup to start the second half, but missed a 3-point shot on the next possession. He got a tip in on a missed layup by Dominique Buckley the next time down the court, and Gilstrap followed it with a layup of his own.

Later in the second half Dendy was trapped down low, looking for a heavily guarded Buckley to bail him out. Not seeing Buckley or any other option, he turned and hit a jump shot under pressure. Drake’s Ben Simmons found college teammate Josh Young (Granite) for a layup to tie the game at 59-59 with about 13 minutes to play.

Shortly after that Dendy posted up on McDermott, then decided to design a play on the fly. The play didn’t really work out, but YMCA scored on the reset. Dendy had a put-back to take a 78-77 lead with six minutes to go.

ISU’s Justin Hamilton (Granite) dunked inside the final minute to take a 87-86 lead, and despite Gilstrap’s attempt at a jumper just before the horn, that remained the final score.

Statistical highlights:

Granite: Young 22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists. Matt Schneiderman (former UNI) 15 points, 10 rebounds. McDermott 6 points, 8 rebounds.

YMCA: Gilstrap 31 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists. Dendy 27 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists. Buckley 10 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists. Smith 7 rebounds. Andrew Dau (Simpson) 8 rebounds.