Dowling Catholic finished the third quarter on a 22-5 run and held off Norwalk’s fourth-quarter rally to defeat the Warrior boys basketball team 62-54. Thursday night’s regular-season finale was heard live on 94.3 KNIA and KNIA3.

Norwalk, which started the game up 13-5, needed a Redek Born 3-pointer at the horn to take a 27-24 lead into halftime. The visiting Maroons outscored the Warriors 29-11 in the third quarter, scoring three conventional three-point plays to go along with two 3-pointers. Norwalk cut a 15-point deficit to 55-48 in the fourth, but could not get any closer.

Dowling senior Ridik Meton had a huge third quarter and scored all of his team-high 20 points in the second half. Joey Coppola IV tallied 14 points and Ryan Kleppe added 12.

Norwalk coach Aaron Pelzer tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that Dowling is a team that shoots a lot of 3-pointers and grabs a bunch of offensive boards, and that was certainly the case on Thursday. Pelzer believes that the third quarter was likely the Warriors’ worst stretch of defense all season. “(Dowling) got whatever they wanted,” he said. “They got two feet in the lane anytime they wanted, kicked to wide open shooters anytime they wanted, and we were just pretty bad defensively.”

Born scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the first half and Aidan Harder added 16 for Norwalk, making four 3-pointers. Cameron Thomas and Grady Sigrist combined for 16 more.

Dowling finished the regular season with an 11-11 overall record. The Warriors are now 16-5 and will host Des Moines Lincoln in a first round Class 4A substate game on Monday night at 7:00 p.m.