The Newton basketball teams were swept in their last Little Hawkeye Conference games of the season Tuesday night, as they dropped both games of a doubleheader to Norwalk that were heard live on the KRLS3 stream. The Cardinal girls lost to the Class 4A #5 Warriors 58-23, while the boys were defeated 56-41.

The Newton girls only trailed Norwalk 11-6 at the end of the first quarter, but Cardinals head coach Jake Bennett says turnovers and rebounding allowed Norwalk to go on a 26-1 run, and pull away to a 37-7 halftime lead.

“We just turned the ball over too much and allowed them second possessions, which led to scores and let them get into their press and force more turnovers. We have to clean that up a little bit.”

In the second half, Norwalk outscored Newton 21-16. Tori White led the Cardinals with nine points on the night. The Newton girls end the conference season with a record of 2-10, and fell to 9-11 overall heading into their regular season finale at home against Des Moines North tomorrow night.

The Cardinal boys got off to a slow start as well, allowing Norwalk to end the first quarter on a 17-3 run, to build up a 21-8 lead after the opening eight minutes of play. Newton head coach Jason Carter said that his team’s struggle to get back on defense led to a deficit they couldn’t overcome.

“In the first quarter we were really bad in our transition defense. We gave up way too many easy baskets in the paint.”

The Cardinals were down by 12 points at the half, and never cut Norwalk’s lead to less than eleven points in the second half. Cade Bauer led Newton with 14 points, and was the only Cardinal in double figures. The Newton boys dropped to 9-9 overall and finished conference play at 4-8. The Cardinal boys return to the court tomorrow night at home against Van Meter.