Breckyn Betenbender’s big shot puts North Linn in 1A title game

By Ryan Timmerman | Photos by Matthew Putney  

DES MOINES -- Breckyn Betenbender didn’t have time to take stock of the moment as he hit what he later called the biggest shot of his life, the North Linn senior just acted on instinct.

“I wasn’t thinking about it in the moment,” the junior said. “But I was open and knew if I got the ball, I was going to shoot it. I’m just lucky it went in, I guess.” 

Betenbender’s shot -- a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter against Remsen Saint Mary’s -- gave the Lynx their first lead of their Class 1A semifinal at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Wednesday,

And it proved to be the last score of the game, as the second-seeded Lynx moved into the 1A championship game on Friday with a 52-50 win over sixth-seeded Saint Mary’s.

“It’s just crazy,” said North Linn junior Ty Pflughaupt. “We had to persevere. We just started firing and the shots started falling, and that got our crowd back into it.”

North Linn (26-0) trailed about as much during the semifinal game as it has the rest of the season combined as the 32 seconds after Betenbender’s shot represented the only 32 seconds the Lynx led all game.

Head coach Mike Hillmer has guided North Linn to a historic run over the past few seasons. The Lynx have made it to state seven straight seasons and are 207-7 since the start of the 2007-08 season. North Linn won a title in 2019 and were champions to end last season.

‘Our first game here, I struggled shooting,” Betenbender said. “But our assistant coach, Travis Griffith, told me to keep shooting. I missed my first shot today, but finally started hitting.

Saint Mary’s (23-3) raced out to a 17-6 lead after one and led 31-19 at the half.

Furthermore, North Linn faced a 48-32 deficit with 7:38 remaining in the fourth.

“We went over the scouting report a lot,” said Betenbender. “So, we kind of knew what they were going to do, but there at the end, we were just basically drawing stuff up in the sand.”

The middle two quarters were a relative stalemate as the Hawks outscored the Lynx by two over the middle two frames.

Less than 40 seconds into the final period, Saint Mary’s Alex Schroeder canned a 3 to make it 48-32, but head coach Mike Hillmer’s Lynx responded with a 20-2 run to end the game and cement the victory.

Pflughaupt, among others, was instrumental in the comeback. He had 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half and was an efficient 7 of 10 shooting.

The Lynx were dealt a big blow early on when 6-foot-5 senior forward/center Tate Haughenbury, who entered the game as North Linn’s leading scorer at 16.7 points per game, exited with an ankle injury.

Haughenbury returned, though was noticeably limited, though he did lead his team in rebounds with seven and tallied five points, five assists and two steals.

Betenbender finished the game with 14 points and Mason Bechen had 10.

Bechen, a sophomore, made his last shot attempt with a minute left in the fourth to pull his side within one at 50-49.

The Hawks had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by Cael Ortmann and Collin Homan, who each had 12. Ryan Willman and Jaxon Bunkers chipped in 10 apiece. Homan led the game in rebounds with 11 for the double-double.

“We knew we could come back, we just couldn’t get down on ourselves,” Bechen said. “We just knew we had to hit some shots and play good defense. At halftime, our coaches told us we were better than what we showed and we had to pick it up.

“The second half came and we played with more confidence. We’ve never been down like that this season. Hopefully we don’t have to do that again.”

Grand View Christian 68, West Harrison 50

Josh Sanderson had never put in a quarter like it.

Sanderson, a Grand View Christian senior, went off for 24 points in the first quarter alone and Grand View Christian held a 20-point lead over West Harrison after just eight minutes of play in the teams’ Class 1A semifinal at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Wednesday. Though the fourth-seeded Hawkeyes worked back in it, the Thunder roared into the 1A championship game with a 68-50 victory.

“I’ve never had a first quarter -- or any quarter -- like that,” Sanderson said, who entered the game averaging a team-best 20.4 points per game. “The shots were just coming to me. My teammates were getting me good looks out there and I got a couple easy ones in transition.

“That got me in the zone a little bit. In the moment, I wasn’t really thinking about it, but it was a really cool thing.”

GV Christian (26-0) plays North Linn in the 1A championship, a game that pits the classes’ top two seeds against one another.

Sanderson ended with a game-high 41 points. He made 9 of 13 shots in the opening period, including 5 of 5 from 3-point range, and ended the game shooting 14 of 26 in total, 6 of 7 from deep and 7 of 7 from the free throw line.

The Thunder were led senior Sage Evans with 17 points. Koleston Evans also reached a double-digit point total with 11.

West Harrison (24-2) made a bid at a comeback by taking the third quarter by a 27-13 margin, but the GV Christian damage was largely done by then as the Thunder slowed down the pace to run time off the clock in the fourth and the teams combined for just 16 total points in the final frame.

“We knew we had to close the game out,” Sanderson said. “Every team here at state are so talented. (West Harrison) hit seven or eight shots in a row, that’s what teams do here and we knew we had to respond. I thought we did a good job of that and buckling down on defense.”

The Hawkeyes made as many shots in the third quarter (10) as they did the rest of the game combined.

In the third, West Harrison shot 10 of 15 from the field and made 3 of 3 free throws to give the Hawkeye faithful something to cheer about while the Thunder went just 5 of 13 for the frame.

The other three quarters were opposite the third, though.

GV Christian ended the game 24 for 47 while West Harrison went 20 of 59 and just 6 of 24 from behind the 3-point line.

The Thunder made half of their 18 attempts from range.

“Just the fact that we’re set to play for a championship is an honor,” said GV Christian head coach Dave Stubbs.