Fort Madison wins Southeast Conference title

STOPPING CLARK

We knew, if we stop him from scoring the ball, every time we stop him, the odds of us winning go up a lot.”

Julian Dear, Fort Madison senior guard

KEOKUK — His players were waiting to douse him with water, but Ryan Wilson had his own surprise.
The Fort Madison boys basketball coach came to Wright Fieldhouse with horns and cans of party string that he passed out to the rest of the coaching staff.
The bombardment from both sides started the minute the locker room door opened.|
The Bloodhounds had won the Southeast Conference title, and Wilson didn’t mind that he came back out into the hallway drenched and covered with string.
“We’re conference champions,” he said, trying to see through water-splattered glasses.
The horns and the string were the last pieces of a perfect game plan that led to Fort Madison’s 44-40 win over Keokuk on Thursday night. 
“It’s monumental,” Wilson said of what the Bloodhounds accomplished. “We have a ladder of goals, and you always want the conference championship. That’s your first goal.”
The Bloodhounds (11-8 overall, 8-2 conference) have been chasing the title all season. A loss to Fairfield in the conference opener put them behind, a 61-50 loss to Keokuk on January 14 was another hurdle that had its own sting.
Fort Madison, though, still found its way to the top for the program’s first conference crown since the 2014-15 season.
“We lost our first game against Fairfield,” Wilson said. “It was all uphill from there. Our guys just stepped up to the plate, took care of situations, and it's just … it's big for our program.”
Guard Julian Dear came out, and he was just as soaked.
“Absolutely it was worth it,” he said, smiling.
Dear hit two crucial 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, one with 4:22 left that tied the game at 32, the second with 3:15 left that put Fort Madison up 35-34.
“For a lot of people, there’s moments,” Dear said. “I knew as a team leader, I had to step up. It’s just what I had to do.”
And when Kenden Bowie hit a shot clock-beating 3-pointer from the corner with 1:04 left to give the Bloodhounds a 40-34 lead, Dear knew that the mission had been accomplished.
“I was like, ‘Oh, there’s no way we’re losing this game,’” Dear said.
“That’s your seniors,” Wilson said of the shots from Dear and Bowie. “That’s what you want out of your seniors. That's what they work hard for. That's four years of hard work for both those two. Tough shots. Battled through. Kenden was frustrated. Julian was frustrated at times. They both knocked some big shots down. That's what you want out of your seniors.”
The Bloodhounds had been quietly stewing since the last loss to the Chiefs (14-6, 7-3). Jaxon Clark had 41 points in that game, tormenting Fort Madison inside with easy shots off offensive rebounds.
That wasn’t going to happen this time. Wilson had a diamond-and-one defense designed to stop Clark, and it worked — he finished with six points, three coming on his last shot of the game with a little more than a second remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We had a guy on him all the time, and we had another guy that was going to follow him around,” Wilson said. “If they were going to beat us tonight, it was going to have to be from other guys.”
“I mean, he had 41 points on it the first time,” Dear said. “We knew, if we stop him from scoring the ball, every time we stop him, the odds of us winning go up a lot.”
The low-scoring game — the Bloodhounds led 6-5 at the end of the first quarter, Keokuk led 19-18 at halftime — played into Fort Madison’s plan. And as Clark failed to score, the Bloodhounds waited to pounce.
“Ultimately, it was 32 minutes of basketball, and we had guys step up in the last few minutes,” Wilson said.
Nolan Guzman led Fort Madison with 13 points. Dear had 12. Bowie had 11.
Tramell Smith and Brenton Hoard each had 10 points for Keokuk.
Fort Madison has two regular-season games remaining before beginning postseason play. The Bloodhounds have a trophy, and that first goal on the ladder.
“It’s a huge win,” Dear said. “We went into overtime with West Hancock, they’re a ranked team. Keokuk was ranked. Our team’s a sleeper team that teams might not think they need to worry about, but we definitely are one (to worry about).”