With South Hamilton trailing Iowa Falls-Alden 43-42 with 7:01 remaining — one of the few times the Hawks trailed all night — Lewis calmly splashed in a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Hawks a two-point lead. And at the 5:40 mark, as Cadet all-state guard Karson Sharar cruised toward the basket for a breakaway layup following a steal, Lewis sprinted downcourt to disrupt the bunny. Sharar’s shot missed; Lewis snagged the rebound, raced the other way and tossed in a floater as he was fouled.

Instead of 45-all, it was 47-43 South Hamilton.

Ballgame.

“That’s how it’s always been and how it’s always going to be at South Hamilton,” Lewis said of the Hawks’ one-for-all and all-for-one mentality. “We can all score the ball and we’re going to play as a team.”

IF-A may have had the best player — Sharar received multiple Division I looks before ultimately deciding to play football in college — but South Hamilton was the better team in its 67-51 rout that featured a 26-8 fourth-quarter burst to put the Cadets away.

Lewis (13 points), Carter Hewitt (16 points) and Clayton Ubben (12 points) all scored in double figures. Austin Busch (8 points) and Tycin Barkema (8 points) came close, and collectively the Hawks took it to an IF-A team considered one of the best in the North Central Conference.

“It’s a great win,” South Hamilton head coach Matt Juber said. “The resiliency the kids showed in those third and fourth quarters was fantastic. The credit goes to them because they took a punch, but adjusted.”

South Hamilton (2-0) dominated the first half and took a 12-point lead, 34-22, into the break. But IF-A had the answer in the third period, as it sped the game up and erased the deficit with a 12-0 flurry over the initial 3:10. The Cadets outscored South Hamilton 21-7 in the quarter and held a 43-41 advantage entering the fourth.

But just as it did in the first half, South Hamilton reclaimed its dominance in the paint late to seize control for good. With Hewitt on the bench in foul trouble, Ubben took over with eight points down the stretch, and a Barkema 3 from the right wing ignited a 20-6 run over the final four minutes.

South Hamilton’s Clayton Ubben (40) scores over Iowa Falls-Alden’s Sam Weaver (24) on Thursday. Ubben finished with 12 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter, in the Hawks’ 67-51 victory. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“Clayton is a hard worker, he gets after it,” Hewitt, who also yanked down a game-high 13 rebounds, said of his partner in the paint. “He played really well and made the most of his opportunity.”

It was Hewitt that IF-A had no answer for early though. The physical 6-foot-6 post scored seven early points and had 13 in the first half. The Cadet eventually had to double- and sometimes triple-team him when he worked in the post, and that opened up things on the perimeter.

A first-year starter, Hewitt’s physical transformation from a season ago is noticeable. He says the confidence that goes along with it is the biggest reason for his early-season play.

“Last year I was always second-guessing myself,” Hewitt, a UNI football commit, said. “But this year I know that I can do it and I have no hesitation with my moves. I’m just confident and the strength is a big part of that.”

Lewis also collected nine rebounds, Busch finished with seven and Ubben corralled six. Lewis and Kyler Hodnefield combined for five steals and five assists as well.

Austin Busch (14) pulls up for a short jumper against Iowa Falls-Alden on Thursday. He had eight points and seven rebounds. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Busch’s biggest contribution came at the defensive end of the floor, where he was tasked with slowing down Sharar, who averaged 23.6 points per game a season ago.

Busch did his job.

Sharar finished with 15 points, but needed 19 shots to get there. He was also just 1 of 9 from behind the 3-point arc.

“That was really impressive and that’s what we worked on in practice,” Lewis said. “Karson Sharar is a great player and we knew that coming in, so we just had to key on him and shut him down.”

Nolan Frohwein also notched 15 points for the Cadets and Blake Janssen added 12 more. Hodnefield and Landen Skartvedt both had five points for the Hawks, who capped a stellar first week of the season by outscoring its two opponents by an average of 14.5 points.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“The sky is the limit with this team,” Hewitt said. “We’ve got a lot of really good players, we just have to keep pushing ourselves.”

South Hamilton 67, IF-Alden 51

Thursday at Jewell

Iowa Falls-Alden (0-1) — Blake Janssen 4 3-4 12, Karson Sharar 7 0-3 15, Samuel Off 0 0-0 0, Nolan Frohwein 6 2-2 15, Sam Weaver 0 0-1 0, JT Uhlenberg 0 0-1 0, Garret Renaud 0 0-2 0, Andrew Bicknese 4 0-1 9. Totals: 21 5-14 51.

South Hamilton (2-0) — Freddie Lewis 3 6-9 13, Carter Hewitt 5 6-8 16, Austin Busch 2 4-6 8, Landen Skartvedt 2 0-0 5, Kyler Hodnefield 1 2-4 5, Tycin Barkema 3 1-2 8, Clayton Ubben 5 2-3 12. Totals: 21 21-32 67.

IF-Alden 10 12 21 8 — 51

S. Hamilton 18 16 7 26 — 67

3-point field goals — IF-A 4 (Janssen, Sharar, Frohwein, Bicknese); SH 4 (Lewis, Skartvedt, Hodnefield, Barkema). Rebounds — SH 43 (Hewitt 13, Lewis 9, Busch 7, Ubben 6). Steals — SH 6 (Lewis 3, Hodnefield 2). Assists — SH 9 (Hodnefield 3, Lewis 2). Turnovers — SH 15. Team fouls — IF-A 22, SH 15. Fouled out — IF-A: Frohwein, Renaud.