Comets advance past Pointers 56-45, to face HDC Bulldogs in substate semifinals on Thursday

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — As the No. 2 seed in the Class 3A-Substate 3 boys basketball bracket, the Charles City Comets are guaranteed to host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the tournament.

That is, of course, if they advance to the semifinals.

The No. 7-seed Center Point-Urbana Pointers, obviously, had other plans for Charles City, and early on into Monday’s quarterfinal at Comet Gym, were comporting themselves as troublesome bracket busters as they jumped out to a 10-2 before holding the Comets to just 5 points in the first quarter.

But perhaps relying too much on their outside attack beyond the 3-point arc, the Pointers fell into a pattern that afflicts many jumpshot-heavy teams — standing around on offense.

Meanwhile, the Comets finally got going and eventually advanced to the semifinals with a 56-45 postseason victory.

Comet senior Keenan Wiley, plagued by several early missed layups, led all scorers with 21 points.

Senior Jeb Wandro scored 14 which included four 3-point field goals — Wandro hit three of his treys in the first half to help Charles City catch and overtake the Pointers; and senior Jack Hanson scored 10 for the Comets (14-8), who will host Hampton-Dumont-CAL on Thursday in the semifinals.

The No. 3-seed Bulldogs edged No. 6-seed Independence 68-67 in their QF.

Charles City faced HDC in a regular-season finale the Monday before where the Comets also got off to a sluggish start before prevailing 55-46 at home.

When Wiley forced a CPU turnover before assisting Hanson’s foul-drawing layup, the resulting three-point play put the Comets up for the first time (24-22) with less than a minute remaining in the first half.

When Comet junior Jordin Ritter displayed his “hops” by leaping high in the air near the half-court line to intercept a long pass and then assist another layup by Hanson, in put the Comets up by 10 (40-30) late in the third quarter.

CPU sophomore Cooper Grimm scored his team’s first 10 points and eventually recorded a team-high 17 points for the Pointers (7-15).

Boys Varsity Basketball

Class 3A-Substate 3 Quarterfinal

CHARLES CITY 56,
CENTER POINT-URBANA 45

Scoring By Quarters

CPU 13 9 9 14 — 45

CC 5 19 16 16 — 56

Individual Scoring

CENTER POINT-URBANA — Cooper Grimm 17, Carter Andrews 4, Kinnick Covington 12, Jackson Brincks 8, Nathan Miller 2, Hunter Holmes 2.

CHARLES CITY — Jack Hanson 10, Kaden Buseman 6, Keenan Wiley 21, Jordin Ritter 5, Jeb Wandro 14.

RECORDS — Charles City 14-8, Center Point-Urbana 7-15