By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
Prep Basketball: Super Conference, Southeast Conference Resume Conference Schedule:
Weather permitting, it should be a “back to normal” night in the Southeast and Super Conference tonight in basketball.
In pivotal girls’ matchup, Central Lee — who just beat Mount Pleasant Saturday — will be at No. 11 (1A) Notre Dame tonight.
Of course any matchup with Central Lee includes figuring out a way to limit their terrific senior Mya Merschman, who has emerged as one of the best players in the State of Iowa.
Merschman is averaging 28.6 points and nearly nine rebounds per game for a Central Lee team that has won two straight contests.
Meanwhile, Jim Myers’ Notre Dame Nikes have their sights set on a return trip to Wells Fargo Arena after starting their season 12-1.
A balanced Nike attack is paced by three players in double figures: Megan Harrell (16.6 ppg), Karli Artman (13.2 ppg) and Katy Stephens (10.9 ppg).
Notre Dame has won the last three meetings between the schools, including a 62-46 victory earlier this year on December 15th.
Tonight’s meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. at Father Minnett Gymnasium in Burlington.
On the boys’ side of things, New London will welcome in West Burlington in what should be a box office matchup between two teams playing some great basketball in the tail end of their season.
West Burlington enters 11-3, with New London coming in at 10-4.
The Falcons are paced by conference Player of the Year candidate Marvion Jackson, who enters tonight averaging 17.6 points and 5.5 rebounds a night.
Of course, any conversation about the New London boys’ starts and ends with Blaise Porter, their terrific sophomore point guard who is pouring in 21.3 points per game.
His game has taken off to another level over the last two weeks.
Kade Benjamin, a fellow sophomore, has played an excellent season as the Batman to Porter’s Superman, averaging 18 points and eight rebounds a night.
New London has won the last seven meetings between the schools, with West Burlington’s last win coming on January 20th of 2017.
They’ll tip tonight at New London High School at 7:30 p.m.
Other matchups tonight:
- Lone Tree at Wapello
- Danville at Holy Trinity (CANCELLED)
- Pekin at Columbus
- Fort Madison at Clark County
College Basketball: Iowa State Falls to OSU, Drake Returns:
The Iowa State men’s basketball team, playing without seven players because of Health and Safety protocols, fell to Oklahoma State last night, 81-60 in Ames.
Rasir Bolton led the way for the Cyclones with 19 points, while Tyler Harris — who played all 40 minutes — finished with 18 points.
Oklahoma State was without their star guard Cade Cunningham but found ways to score against a short-handed Cyclone team.
Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe paced the Cowboys with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
Iowa State fell to 2-8 on the year and 0-6 in Big 12 play.
They’ll travel to Mississippi State on Saturday, with tipoff set for 5:00 p.m.
Drake Returns Tonight:
The Drake University men’s basketball team returns from a more than three-week break Tuesday to resume its season with a two-game series at Missouri State.
The Bulldogs have not played since Jan. 4 due to COVID-19 protocols and emerge from the break as one of five unbeaten teams in the nation at 13-0.
Despite the lengthy delay, the Bulldogs’ 13 wins are still the fifth most in the nation.
Drake emerges from its hibernation second in the nation in margin of victory at an average of 24.0 points per game, just 0.1 points behind the national leader, Baylor.
Drake has won five of the last six meetings between the two teams.
Tonight’s game will begin at 7:00 p.m.
College T&F: Iowa Wesleyan Competes at NW Mo. St:
The Iowa Wesleyan Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams opened up their indoor season at the Northwest Open hosted by Northwest Missouri State University, Saturday.
Here are their standouts:
- Tyree Walker (FR/Baton Rouge, LA) started his career as a Tiger by turning in a top ten performance in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.83 seconds.
- Kiel Parkhurst (SO/Copperas Cove, TX) also turned in a top ten performance for the Tigers by throwing a personal best of 32′ 10.25″ in the weight throw.
- Allison Morris (JR/Antioch, IL) earned a top ten performance for Iowa Wesleyan in the mile. Morrison ran a time of 6:56 which ranked seventh all-time in program history. Morris also had a personal best and top ten performance in the 3000 meter with a time of 13:40.06 for seventh all-time.
- Veronica Morgan (SR/Capron, IL) threw a personal best in the weight throwing for 20′ 5.25″. The throw is also seventh all-time in program history.
The Tigers will return to action on tonight at the Grand View Field Meet in Des Moines, IA.
Action is set to begin at 4:00 PM.