SAYDEL — To describe Perry boys basketball head coach Ned Menke as frustrated would be, perhaps, too kind an illuminative.
Two hours after Monday’s game against Newton in the Saydel Jamboree Menke was still wondering how 30 total fouls could be called and 43 free throws taken in only 16 minutes of play.
“They were calling everything, like I have rarely, if ever seen,” he said. “If that is what they want the game to look like there won’t be any fans of basketball left.”
Perry and Newton played to a 32-all tie in the two-quarter tilt, with the whistle blowing so frequently that the Bluejays were in the double-bonus (Newton had committed 10 team fouls) just six minutes into the game, with Newton in the double-bonus by the start of the second quarter.
“You have to take everything that happened with a big grain of salt,” Menke said. “Shammond (Ivory) managed to foul out and we had 11 more free throws (29) than shots taken (18) in 16 minutes. It was kind of crazy.”
Perry would have won outright had they shot better at the line, with the Jays hitting just 17-of-29 freebies (59 percent) while Newton hit 9-of-14 (64 percent). The Bluejays led, 22-11, after one quarter, but the Cardinals used a 21-10 edge in the second frame to create the kiss-your-sister tie result.
Ivory led Perry with 10 points, with Kyle Nevitt and Ryan Rathje adding nine points apiece. Three points from Rashon Ivory and one from Trey Dantzler capped the Bluejay scoring.
Perry will open their regular season with a boys-girls twinbill at Greene County Dec. 1, with a visit from Carlisle Dec. 4 beginning the Raccoon River Conference portion of the schedule.
