FORT DODGE — The Marshalltown boys’ basketball team led Fort Dodge by as many as 11 points but couldn’t put the win away, falling 58-52 in overtime to the host Dodgers in Tuesday’s Iowa Alliance Conference clash.
Marshalltown had won nine of the last 10 games in the series before the Dodgers (4-11, 2-5) stormed back from a double-digit deficit in the second half. The Bobcats (4-11, 2-4) led 30-19 midway through the third quarter but were unable to make it stand up.
Fort Dodge outscored MHS 42-27 after halftime.
“We stopped defending people, that was the story of the game,” said MHS head coach Michael Appel. “We held them to 16 points in that first half, then we couldn’t guard all the sudden. We’ve got to do a much better job of being consistent with that and making it harder for them to score, be solid and understand what they’re trying to do, and we had a really hard time with that in the second half.
“It’s really frustrating just because I think we’ve been making some really good strides defensively and tonight it didn’t look like that at all.”
Carter Woodruff scored a game-high 19 points to lead Fort Dodge, and Cade Westerhoff had 14 more.
Jacob Hayes scored a team-high 13 points for Marshalltown, Kyle Smith finished with 11 and Drake Gersema had 10. Adam Boone pitched in with eight points, and Jamison Niehouse and LaMar Johnson had five apiece. Gersema tallied nine rebounds and nine assists, while Niehouse had seven boards in his first game back from an illness.
The Bobcats are back at home Friday for another divisional clash with Waterloo East.
Fort Dodge 58, Marshalltown 52
MARSHALLTOWN (4-11, 2-4) — Jamison Niehouse 2 1-2 5, Drake Gersema 5 0-2 10, Kyle Smith 4 1-2 11, LaMar Johnson 1 3-4 5, Jacob Hayes 5 1-2 13, Dominyc Clure 0 0-0 0, Adam Boone 3 0-0 8. TOTALS 20 6-12 52.
FORT DODGE (4-11, 2-5) — Carter Woodruff 7 3-4 19, Cade Westerhoff 6 2-6 14, Taevon Feeley 3 0-0 6, Reggie Pederson 4 0-4 8, Kauner Jensen 1 0-0 2, Tayven Altman 2 0-0 5, Hayden Zuspann 1 0-0 2, Tisyn Hook 1 0-0 2, Brody Maehl 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 25 5-14 58.
MHS 11 14 14 10 3 — 52
FD 9 7 15 18 9 — 58
3-Point Goals–MHS 6 (Smith 2, Hayes 2, Boone 2), FD 3 (Woodruff 2, Altman). Team Fouls–MHS 14, FD 13. Fouled Out–none.