STC junior Wesley Hanus (33) shoots over Union defenders Zach Griswold (24) and Grady Anderson (34) during the Monday, Dec. 9 basketball game in Tama. PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER

TAMA — South Tama County boys basketball was outmatched in experience against Union Community on Monday, Dec. 9.

The Knights rolled by the Trojans, 74-36, in the STC gym.

With no returning starters, figuring out personnel has been a work in progress for head coach Craig Harrison.

“We’re making the mistakes you’d expect us to make,” Harrison said. “We’re out of position on defense, turning the ball over, making risky passes into a crowd, the kinds of things new players do. It’s the kind of thing I expected but still hoped I wouldn’t see.”

Union stomped out to a 22-2 lead after the first quarter and was up 43-13 at halftime. Caden Sorenson led Union with 21 points and Cameron Mullen and Ethan Winnike contributed 14 and 12 points. Barret Jessina was STC’s lead scorer ar 11 points; Jerome Kapayou added nine points.

“They have kids that have played and we don’t,” Harrison said. “They showed some veteran skills, we showed newbie skills. We’ve got a group of good guys with good potential, we’re just not there.”

Slowing down will be the key for the Trojans going forward.

“I’m sure our shot clock never went below 20 seconds,” Harrison said. “We’re just not taking our time, we’re settling for contested threes instead of open layups or open jumpers.”

Tanner Large and Cyrell Etzen put in time in the offseason to improve for their junior years this winter, and Harrison said if anyone is leading the way after graduating 12 seniors from last year’s squad, it’s those two.

“Tanner is vocal on the court, he’s got some experience and Cyrell played a bit for us at the end of the year with the seniors and now he’s just missing the guys he’s used to playing with,” Harrison said. “We’re trying not to take our time, but it will take some time.

“With our big moving away last year, we’ve got a lot of guys vying for a spot, and we’ve got 3-4 guys playing in that spot looking to earn it and I’m not ready to commit yet to any of them.”

STC has four more games until the end of the year, starting with Tuesday’s matchup against Center Point-Urbana in the final home game of 2024.

“We need some game experience, and we’re gonna get it,” Harrison said. “Hopefully we’ll continue to develop.”

Union Community 74, South Tama 36

UNION (3-1) — Cameron Mullen 6 1-2 14, Maddux DeWinter 1 0-0 2, Tate Van Dyke 5 0-0 10, Caden Sorensen 8 0-0 21, Eric Neipert 1 0-0 2, Sawyer Spence 3 0-0 8, Ethan Winnike 5 1-2 12, Henry Hegdahl 0 0-0 0, Cooper Spore 0 0-0 0, Eli Grote 2 0-0 4, Zach Griswold 0 1-2 1, Hunter Brustkern 0 0-0 0, Grady Anderson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 31 3-6 74.

SOUTH TAMA (0-3) — Cyrell Etzen 2 0-0 4, Tanner Large 2 0-0 5, Nick Upah 0 0-0 0, Barrett Jesina 5 0-0 11, Jerome Kapayou 3 0-0 9, Marion Harris 0 0-2 0, Leo Garcia 0 0-0 0, Michael Henry 0 0-0 0, Lane Feisel 0 0-0 0, Tay Sanders 1 0-1 2, Marten Langen 0 0-0 0, Wesley Hanus 0 0-0 0, Omar Viramontes 1 0-0 3, Damias Bear 0 0-0 0, Josiah Houghton 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 15 0-3 36.

UNION 22 21 24 7 — 74

S. TAMA 2 11 10 13 — 36

3-Point Goals-Union 9 (Sorensen 5, Spence 2, Mullen, Winnike), STC 6 (Kapayou 3, Large, Jesina, Viramontes). Team Fouls-Union 9, STC 5. Fouled Out-none.