Five Takeaways: Norwalk 82 vs Clarke 36

T.J. Rushing

February 19, 2019 @ 02:33 PM

Norwalk -- At one point in this game, No. 3 Norwalk led 48-4, that's pretty much the story with this Substate 7 quarterfinal game. The Warriors' starters rolled the Indians. Juniors Tyler Johnson and Bowen Born combined for 25 first quarter points. The Norwalk starters all got plenty of rest after the first quarter. Osceola actually outscored Norwalk in the third quarter, behind some hot shooting from junior Sam Cooley. Most of the third quarter -- and the second half for that matter -- was played by the Norwalk reserves. The Indians were led by senior guard Lenny Peavy's 15 points, he's a nice point guard. They finish their 2018-19 campaign 2-18. Norwalk was led by Bowen Born's 27 points, which was especially impressive considering he played about half the game. He was 11-15 from the floor. The Warrior will host Dallas Center-Grimes on Thursday for a Substate semifinal. They beat the Mustangs twice by an average of 26 points during the regular season.   Team Scoring Clarke -- 4 6 19 7 -- 36 Norwalk -- 30 20 16 16 -- 82   Individual Scoring Clarke: Lenny Peavy 15, Sam Cooley 9, Marshall Morrison 5, Taylor Henry 3, Juan Echeverria 3, Dalton Stubbe 1. Norwalk: Bowen Born 27, Tyler Johnson 15, Ethan Carlson 11, Tyler Endres 8, Sam Rohrer 5, Blake Chittenden 4, Zach Marker 3, Andrew Castaneda 3, Sam Eggers 2, Carson Raper 2, Carter Funk 2.   Five Takeaways Born Dominates Born's state-line is great, he scored 27 points on 11-15 shooting, was 4-7 from deep and swiped three steals for good measure. Under ordinary circumstances, that would be a great game, even by Born's standards. What makes it truly great, was that he posted those numbers while playing only one full quarter. He started the game and scored 15 first quarter points, after that he was in an out of the lineup, more often out then in. Clarke didn't pose the greatest of defenses, but 27 points in half of a game is impressive no matter who it's against.     [caption id="attachment_359880" align="alignright" width="187"] Tyler Johnson[/caption] Junior Backcourt Born's running mate Tyler Johnson has emerged as one of the best shooting guards in the state. Born is the guy that will get most of the headlines, but Johnson will warrant plenty of his own over the next year plus. He's 6'4 and has a sweet stroke from deep, and is a key scorer for the Warriors; he averaged 14.4 points per game this season. Of course, there's still lots to look forward to this season for the Warriors. And as this backcourt duo of Johnson and Born heads into their senior season, you'd have some trouble finding a finer back-court in the state.   Lenny Peavy Clarke is not a very good basketball team, but they did feature a talented senior point guard with Lenny Peavy. He came into the game averaging 19.5 points per game, which was 16th-best in Class 3A. Sometimes when you get high scorers on bad teams, you don't know exactly what you're gonna get, with Peavy, it's a legit lead guard with some college hoops potential.   Echeverria Moment This game was over before the first quarter ended. The result of the blowout was there were some pretty relaxed moments throughout. In the fourth quarter, Clarke senior Juan Echeverria got plenty of run, which is noteworthy because he seldom plays, and had scored just 19 points all season. It was clear right away, though, that he was a crowd favorite. It was also clear that Echeverria was in there to launch 3-balls until he got one to drop. Finally, after four tries, Echeverria got his sweet lefty stroke to work for him, and rained in a 3-ball with 18 seconds left in the game. The crowd went wild, both Clarke's and Norwalk's. It was a cool moment. https://twitter.com/TjRushing/status/1097695127630462976   Norwalk's Chances Thursday Norwalk will play DC-G in a Substate semifinal, they will be heavily favored in that one. Though it won't be as easy as the prior two meetings, we think the Warriros will get that one. Then it'll be a Substate final against either Gilbert or ADM, presumably Gilbert, that will be a tough one, but Norwalk will again be the favorite. A win against Gilbert and the Warriros would be in the state tournament for the second straight season. It won't be easy, but we think they'll be at Wells Fargo Arena come March.