Reggie Chapman steps up, sends Newark past H-BR for Little Ten Conference lead

NEWARK – It was unfortunate that Newark‘s Dylan Long and Hinckley-Big Rock‘s Martin Ledbetter weren’t on the floor in the second half of Tuesday’s game.

With Long out after suffering an injury late in the first half, and Ledbetter at home sick, the Norsemen held on for a 67-64 victory to take sole possession of first place in the Little Ten Conference.

“It was fun and almost fitting that it almost went to overtime,” Newark coach Kyle Anderson said. “I’m proud of the guys for stepping up, and it’s going to help us in the long run.

“Our freshmen stepped up big and our point guard [junior] Reggie Chapman has been stepping up every game, which we need. There are a lot of things we need to fix, but it’s nice to fix them after a win.”

Chapman didn’t leave the floor, scoring 13 of his 21 points in the second half. He made 7 of 12 from the field overall and scored nine in the fourth quarter. He added seven assists and five rebounds.

“We were without three of five starters [senior Payton Wills and junior Cody Kulbartz fouled out in the fourth quarter] so we needed somebody to step up,” Chapman said. “And everybody who was in the game did. I had to fill a bigger role at that point because our top two scorers and our big guy were out. I knew someone needed to get going and scoring, and I feel like we all did well stepping up with that.”

Newark (13-10, 7-0) shot 53% (25-of-47) from the field. The Norsemen made all eight of their 3-pointers in the first half, building a 46-36 lead at halftime.

“Our team was really hitting 3s, especially [freshman] Jimmy [Kath],” Chapman said. “Jimmy had a really good night tonight.”

Kath’s 17 points were the most he’s scored.

“He’s not scored that much, he’s gotten around 10-ish,” Anderson said. “Our thing with him is to get him [to be] more aggressive. Tonight he was. He’s relegated himself to just a spot-up shooter. We want him getting downhill, and he was getting downhill tonight. He was getting a lot of floaters in the first half, putting a lot of pressure on them, which was huge. We need people like him progressing for us to be the best this year and in the program going forward.”

Sophomore Marshall Ledbetter’s quick cut and layup to end the third quarter pulled the Royals to within 52-50, but they wouldn’t get any closer.

One of Kath’s floaters midway through the first quarter gave the Norsemen a 7-5 lead. They’d keep it the rest of the way.

Hinckley-Big Rock (16-7, 6-1) shot 38% (25 of 66) from the field. They are a much different team without their 6-foot-6 all-stater doing damage and disrupting things down low.

“I could not be happier with these guys,” Hinckley-Big Rock coach Seth Sanderson said. If you are going to give me the option of having a first-team all stater or not I’m going to take those guys always.

“But to have a game in January where we can have Emeka Ezuma come in and shoot the ball the best he has this season, and the other Ledbetter had his best game. Some of these guys are starting to figure out the varsity side of things. Having [everyone healthy] we probably don’t get that depth exposure tonight. Don’t want to lose, but you can script everything out and 24 hours later it looks nothing like what you planned on.”

Ezuma made five 3-pointers and scored 19 points joining Max Hintzsche (21 points), Luke Badal (10 points) and Marshall Ledbetter (10 points) in double figures.

Hintzsche’s shot attempt to try to send the game to overtime was off target.

After Newark sophomore Austin Reibel’s split two free throws with 4 seconds left, Ezuma snagged the rebound off his miss and got the ball ahead to Hinzsche, but the senior’s shot was off the mark."

“I thought we did a good job of adjusting at halftime,” Sanders said. “And this is a tough place to play, and guys are getting their first starts on varsity here in conference.”

On a night where the respective top players from both sides were unavailable, others certainly stepped up for each side.

“It was a good win from a lot of guys who haven’t been in the position to do it,” Anderson said. “There’s a few who have been. Cody Kulbartz (7 points, 6 rebounds) is a big guy who has struggled with foul trouble all year. Jackson Walker (3 rebounds) comes off the bench and is used to this and has had some big moments, but not when we’re down a best player and lose [Payton] Willis as well and have freshmen [Eastin McBroom] thrust in the game. But for the most part, we didn’t turn it over, we took care of the ball and gave our best effort defensively. We were just gritty.”