ARMSTRONG — West Hancock forced 28 turnovers, leading to a 68-47 total shot advantage, to take a 52-37 win over North Union in Armstrong on Friday.

The Eagles jumped out to an early lead in the Top of Iowa Conference basketball matchup, while having success spreading the ball around.

Chase Kronemann hit a 3 from the right wing and Tanner Thompson assisted Brayden Leerar for a mid-range jumper to put West Hancock ahead 5-3, then Josef Smith grabbed his own rebound and put it back up for two more.

The Warriors used 3s from Noah Morphew and Brendan Anderson to stay close early, but the Eagle offense surged ahead.

After the first quarter, West Hancock led 16-10, but the Eagles shut down the Warrior offense in the second quarter with a combination of press back-court pressure and a trapping zone in the front court.

“That’s what killed us in Estherville, too,” said North Union head coach Alex Fisher. “It’s our Achilles heel right now, just taking care of the ball. Right now it’s really a confidence thing. We have a lot of kids with ball-handling ability, it’s just that no one wants to step up and beat the press. At halftime, we really didn’t make any adjustments, it was just more talking about the will. If guys were more willing to get to the middle and get the ball. … We’re just not playing really smart, we’re taking unnecessary risks. It’s getting there.”

North Union could get only a steal-turned-layup from Gage Madden and another steal-turned-layup from Robert Ortman to score four points in the second quarter.

West Hancock put up 13 second-quarter points to lead 29-14 at halftime.

The Warriors reversed their fortune coming out of halftime, holding the Eagles to only four points in the third quarter.

West Hancock’s Kronemann hit the second of two free throws and Thompson sank a 3 off a Tristan Hunt assist, but that was all the Eagle offense could produce.

The Warriors worked to whittle away their deficit.

Anderson hit three of four free-throw opportunities in the first two minutes and Jay Heinen used a post-spin move for a layup to get the Warriors within 11.

Braden Pierce hit two free throws to bring the Warriors within nine before Thompson’s 3.

Anderson scored the Warriors’ final points of the quarter when Avery Krantz grabbed an offensive board and dished to Anderson for a cutting layup.

After a strong defensive third quarter, the Warriors had cut the deficit to 10.

But the Eagles’ offense wouldn’t be held down for long as it scored 19 in the final quarter to build its 15-point win.

Morphew hit three fourth-quarter 3s to keep the Warriors in it, while Ortman made one of two free throws and Anderson sank a midrange jumper and a layup off a Pierce assist to build the Warriors’ 14-point quarter.

Fisher said coming off a game Thursday night, it was good to see the consistent effort from the Warriors.

“It was a lot of grit,” Fisher said. “We had a ton of fight. It was tough coming back-to-back after playing what I thought was a track meet (Thursday). We didn’t have our legs tonight. … We had it down to a 10-point game. I was really happy with our fight, we played good defense and forced some turnovers. We gave ourselves a chance. … The turnovers killed us in the first half. … When you do that and we were only down 15 points with 20 turnovers in the first half, we’ll take it.”

Morphew led the Warriors with 12 points on four 3s, while Anderson totalled 11 points and four steals.

Ortman contributed eight rebouds and Pierce had six boards.

North Union shot 13 of 47 from the field, including 5 of 23 from behind the 3-point arc. The Warriors made 6 of 11 free throws.

Kronemann led the Eagles with 19 points to complement five rebounds and four steals, while Smith had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

West Hancock hit 21 of 68 shots from the field, including 4 of 21 from 3.

North Union (1-4, 1-2) plays at Northwood-Kensett at 7:30 p.m. Monday. West Hancock (2-2, 2-2) plays host to Emmetsburg at 7:45 p.m. Monday.

WH 16-13-4-19–52

NU 10- 4-9-14–37

West Hancock (52)

Kronemann 7-13 2-6 19, Smith 6-14 0-0 12, Leerar 2-14 0-0 4, Vayson Barnes 1-4 2-2 4, Tristan Hunt 2-6 0-2 4, Keifer Carlson 2-4 0-1 4, Thompson 1-9 0-0 3, Parker Feuring 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-68 6-13 52.

North Union (37)

Morphew 4-13 0-0 12, Anderson 4-10 2-5 11, Pierce 1-2 2-2 4, Gage Madden 2-9 0-0 4, Ortman 1-10 1-2 3, Heinen 1-2 0-0 2, Avery Krantz 0-1 1-2 1. Totals: 13-47 6-11 37.

3-pointers: WH 4-21 (Kronemann 3-7); NU 5-23 (Morphew 4-12). Rebounds: WH 39 (Smith 11, Hunt 7, Kronemann 5); NU 27 (Ortman 8, Pierce 6). Assists: WH 9; NU 6 (Pierce 3). Steals: WH 15 (Kronemann 4, Thompson 4); NU 14 (Anderson 4).