Big frosh leads Heelan past West, 59-48

By Terry Hersom, Journal sports editor

There will be nights, Tom Betz knows, when Bishop Heelan's Brennan Cougill plays like a freshman.

There will never, however, be nights when Cougill looks like one.

A 6-7, 260-pounder, Cougill made his first big varsity basketball splash Friday night, dumping home 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as Heelan rallied to post a 59-48 victory over visiting city rival West.

Joe Wendte added 15 points and Clint Sargent 13 as the Crusaders, Iowa's fifth-ranked Class 3A team, improved to 4-0.

But the impact of Cougill, coming off the bench to dominate in the low post, was an indisputable difference against a hard-luck West team that has battled a brutal early season schedule with no strong presence in the paint.

The Wolverines are 0-5, losing two other close games with rated teams (Hull Western Christian and Orange City Unity Christian)..

"Our guys understand that Brennan brings a lot to the team,'' said Betz, the 6-foot 8-inch Heelan coach who can't help being excited about a young talent in the post. "They treat him like anyone else and they look for him with the ball. You look for a young guy, that means you trust him.''

Cougill, a transfer from Cherokee, did an efficient job of sliding into the low post and the Crusaders found him eight times for easy lay-ins. All of those came in the final three periods after West built a 15-6 first-quarter lead and then made it a 19-6 advantage with the first two buckets of the second period.

"I wanted to do well because I was kind of disappointed about the way I played in the sophomore game,'' said Cougill, whose mother, the former Gina Schuldt, was an Iowa prep all-stater at Odebolt-Arthur and later starred at Morningside, where she's still eighth in career scoring.

Cougill was limited to three points while playing two periods in the prelim contest.

"It's a long season,'' said Betz, one of Cougill's mom's former Morningside classmates. "He had a great night tonight, but he's a freshman.''

West's Josh Collins led the Wolverines with 18 points while Enrique Porras and Dylan McClary each contributed 10.

Sargent, a 6-3 junior, scored eight of Heelan's 15 points in a second quarter that ended in a 15-5 Heelan run, cutting West's lead at halftime to 24-21.

Heelan surged in front midway through the third quarter with a 10-0 run that featured six points from Wendte and four from Cougill, putting the Crusaders ahead to stay at 36-31.

It remained close the rest of the way, however, and West still trailed by only 53-48 before Heelan hit six straight free throws in the final 17 seconds.

"They hit 18 of 25 free throws and we only make eight of 20 -- that's the game right there,'' summed up West Coach Steve Evans. "Our seniors have got to make plays for us and that's just not happening so far.''

"West is a very dangerous team,'' said Heelan's Betz. "Nobody in town matches their quickness. They've just had a heck of an early season schedule.''

Heelan won the sophomore game 56-43, improving to 4-0 as Tony Maxey tallied 20 points and John Daniels added 14. West's sophomores (2-3) got 10 points from Charlie Murphy.

WEST (48)

Lenny Grinols 3-12 0-4 6, Robert Scarlvough 0-0 0-0 0, Enrique Porras 3-7 3-4 10, Josh Collins 7-17 3-6 18, Dylan McClary 4-10 0-0 10, Tim Carpenter 0-1 2-4 2, Jeff Noble 1-1 0-0 2, Huy Cao 0-1 0-0 0, Adam Howrd 0-0 0-2 0, Charlie Murphy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-49 8-20 48.

HEELAN (59)

Treye Hacker 1-4 2-2 4, Dan Kuehl 1-3 3-4 6, Adam Vondrak 1-6 0-2 2, Clint Sargent 3-10 7-8 13, Joe Wendte 4-9 5-6 15, Dino Cizmic 0-1 0-0 0, Brennan Cougill 8-10 0-1 16, Mike Bisenius 0-2 1-2 1, Kelvin Hickman 0-0 0-0 0, Jeff Kerian 1-2 0-0 2, Kyle Ebel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-47 18-25 59.

West 15 9 13 11 -- 48

Heelan 6 15 19 19 -- 59

3-point shots -- West 4-16 (McClary 2-6, Porras 1-3, Collins 1-3, Grinols 0-4), Heelan 3-10 (Wendte 2-4, Kuehl 1-2, Hacker 0-1, Cizmic 0-1, Sargent 0-2). Rebounds -- West 27 (Carpenter 7), Heelan 44 (Cougill 10). Turnovers -- West 11, Heelan 16. Total fouls -- West 23, Heelan 16. Fouled out -- Porras (5:38, 4th), Scarlvough (1:29, 4th).