PLEASANT HILL — Sometimes the sequel simply doesn’t stand up to the original.
On Monday night, the Marshalltown boys’ basketball team couldn’t come up with the plot to change the storyline against Southeast Polk, and the Rams eliminated the Bobcats in the first round of postseason play.
Junior guard Bode Goodman scored a game-high 19 points and got enough help to power Southeast Polk past Marshalltown, 74-35, in a game that looked nothing like its prelude three nights earlier.
The Bobcats played to within nine points of the Rams in Friday’s 59-50 loss inside the Roundhouse, but Southeast Polk (7-16) looked a lot more comfortable on its home court on Monday night. Goodman was one of three double-digit scorers as the Rams advanced to Friday’s Class 4A Substate 7 semifinal at Waukee (15-7).
“We had a really hard time scoring the ball,” said MHS head coach Michael Appel. “Our effort has been great all season for the most part, can’t complain about that. It’s a fun group to coach — very unselfish, come ready to work every day, do what they’re asked. When you get a group like that, it’s really fun to coach.”
Tre Brooks scored a team-high 10 points, Carter Giannetto and Rogelio Ceren added nine apiece, and the Bobcats bowed out at 9-13 for the year.
“That first half we missed a lot of easy ones, a lot of bunnies around the rim, and Southeast Polk had some role guys step up big-time for them in that first half,” Appel said. “Just the combination of those two things, it was hard for us to get in a rhythm, and in that second half we didn’t have much to match them.
“They’re physical and they made it hard on us. We had some open looks and just didn’t make some of them, and that’s how it goes sometimes.”
The Bobcats shot 2-of-19 from 3-point range in the season-ending loss. Class 4A’s 3-point leader, sophomore Kyle Smith, was held to one 3-pointer and five points in all.
Smith is the only starter who isn’t a senior, including his older brother Cory.
“Guys like Cory and Ro(gelio), they didn’t give up on it,” Appel said. “They didn’t necessarily play a lot their junior year but they stuck with it and understood they’d have a role on our team and that’s the same situation a lot of these juniors are in right now for next year. They need to come ready to work in the offseason and get better and put themselves in positions to play a lot of minutes, just like Cory and Ro did this year.”
The 39-point loss matches the team’s largest deficit of the season and drops the Bobcats to 4-15 against Southeast Polk in the last 17 seasons.
Behind Goodman, the Rams got 14 points from Grady Braunshweigh-Norris and 12 from Trey Lust.
Southeast Polk 74, Marshalltown 35
MARSHALLTOWN (9-13) — Carter Giannetto 3 3-4 9, Tre Brooks 4 2-3 10, Kyle Smith 2 0-0 5, Cory Smith 1 0-0 2, Rogelio Ceren 4 0-0 9, Jacob Thiessen 0 0-0 0, Adam Boone 0 0-0 0, Ryan Schmit 0 0-0 0, Gatleel Joar 0 0-0 0, Jose Vargas 0 0-0 0, Will Swartz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 14 5-7 35.
SE POLK (7-16) — AJ Schafer 1 0-0 2, Bode Goodman 7 3-4 19, Grady Braunshweigh-Norris 5 0-0 14, Jaxen Barton 2 0-0 4, Trey Lust 6 0-2 12, Zeb Hinze 3 0-0 8, Sam Zelenovich 2 0-0 5, Noah Frank 0 0-0 0, Luke Bartlett 1 0-0 3, Noah Scheller 0 0-0 0, Rex Smith 2 0-0 4, Henry Gaffney 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 30 3-6 74.
MHS 7 13 8 7 — 35
SE POLK 9 20 24 21 — 74
3-Point Goals–MHS 2 (K. Smith, Ceren), SE Polk 11 (Braunshweigh-Norris 4, Goodman 2, Hinze 2, Zelenovich, Bartlett, Gaffney). Team Fouls–MHS 7, SE Polk 8. Fouled Out–none.