High School Basketball

The Central Lee boys’ team will compete against Davis County tonight at 7:30 pm at home.

The Mediapolis boys’ team will travel to Tipton tonight at 7:30 pm.

The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team will host Fairfield tomorrow, February 14th, at 7:30 pm.

High School Girls’ Postseason Basketball

Regional basketball tips-off tonight for Class 1A and on Saturday, February 15th, for Classes 2A and 3A with all games starting at 7 pm. Here’s a look at our local matchups. 

In Class 1A Region 7 on the top half of the bracket, Winfield-Mt. Union will travel to Keota, Wapello will make the trip to Highland, and New London will take on Hillcrest Academy on the road.

In the bottom half of the bracket, WACO will face off against Burlington Notre Dame in a cross-divisional conference matchup at home. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm tonight. Holy Trinity Catholic will host Moulton-Udell.

In Class 2A Region 1, Van Buren County will compete against Pleasantville on February 18th on the road. In Region 2, West Burlington will play West Branch on Saturday at home with the winner advancing to tangle with Columbus; Danville will take on Louisa-Muscatine on February 18th at home.

In Class 3A Region 1, #13 Mediapolis will face off against Washington at home. In Region 4, Fairfield will travel to Williamsburg and Central Lee will make the trip to Mid-Prairie. 

In Class 4A Region 4, Mt. Pleasant will make the trip to Keokuk on Wednesday, February 19th. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm. The winner will travel to Clear Creek Amana on Saturday, February 22nd.

The top half of the bracket will feature Burlington playing host to Fort Madison with the winner to compete against Central DeWitt on Saturday. 

High School Girls’ Basketball Rankings

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released their final rankings for Classes 1A, 2A, and 3A and Mediapolis leapfrogged one team to be ranked #13 for Class 3A to end the regular season.

After finally appearing in the rankings for the first time this year last week, the Bulldogs handled business with a resounding 66-12 win over Columbus as this suffocating defense of Mediapolis tabbed their 17th game this season of at least 20 steals as they lead the state in steals per game.

Their offense is almost as impressive, averaging 67.1 points per game, which ranks 4th in the state and first in Class 3A. It is consistency and a knack for sharing the ball for the Bulldogs with three players averaging double figure points per night and the team is averaging the most assists per night in the state.

High School Boys’ Postseason Basketball

District basketball is ready to tip-off tomorrow, February 14th, for Class 1A and Monday, February 17th, for Class 2A with all games slated to start at 7 pm. Here’s a look at our local matchups.

In Class 1A Substate 4: District 8, New London will make the trip to Wapello for the preliminary round tomorrow with the winner advancing to face off against the #1-seed #10 Burlington Notre Dame. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.

The other first round matchups include Winfield-Mt. Union hosting Pekin in the #4-seed versus #5-seed contest. #2 Holy Trinity Catholic will face off against #7 Columbus. Lastly, #6 Danville will travel to #3 WACO.

In Class 2A Substate 5: District 9, the #1-seed #10 West Burlington will await the winner between #4 Central Lee and #5 Louisa-Muscatine, while #2 Mid-Prairie received a bye as well with the Golden Hawks taking on the winner between #3 Mediapolis and #6 Cardinal.

In District 10, Van Buren County will hit the road to compete against PCM for their first-round matchup. 

High School Wrestling

The boys’ district meet is scheduled for Saturday, February 15th, with Van Buren County, WACO, and Wapello traveling to Pleasantville and New London will head to Wilton in Class 1A. For Class 2A, Burlington Notre Dame, Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union, and Fairfield will compete in Centerville and Mt. Pleasant and Mediapolis will venture to Williamsburg. 

High School Bowling

The girls’ state qualifying meets are scheduled for Monday, February 17th, and Fairfield and West Burlington will compete at Davis County, while Mt. Pleasant will travel to Keokuk. 

The boys’ state qualifying meets will take place on Tuesday, February 18th, and Mt. Pleasant will make the trip to Keokuk to compete. 

Southeastern Community College                                                     

The men’s basketball team will face off against Illinois Central College at home at 7 pm tonight. 

College Basketball

The #10 Iowa State men’s team will compete against Cincinnati at home on Saturday, February 15th, at 3 pm.

The Iowa men’s team snapped out of their three-game funk last night with an 84-73 win over Rutgers. Josh Dix buried 26 points in the winning effort as Payton Sandfort added 20 points of his own. The Hawkeyes will take on #25 Maryland on Sunday, February 16th, at 4 pm on the road. 

The Iowa women’s team will host Rutgers tonight at 6:30 pm.

The Iowa State women’s team will face off against Kansas on the road on Saturday at 4 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1923 – The first fully all-Black and Black-owned professional basketball team, The Renaissance, was organized. Commonly called The Rens, the team was founded by Robert L. Douglas, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972.

1932 – A 2-2 final round tie with the US is good enough for Canada to clinch its fourth consecutive Olympic ice hockey gold medal at Lake Placid; Canadian center Walter Monson is tournament top scorer with 11 points.

1971 – US Vice President Spiro Agnew hits two tee shots into a crowd while golfing, injuring two.

Prep Girls’ Basketball- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released the Regional Brackets for Classes 4A and 5A today and the Southeast Conference (SEC) will have to battle it out in the first round for our local matchups.

Class 4A

All eyes will be on Region 4 with four of the six SEC teams pitted against one another to start off the tournament on Wednesday, February 19^th, at 7 pm.

In the top half of the bracket, Burlington, who nabbed the SEC championship with a win over Washington last night, will get a home game against Fort Madison to tip-off their postseason journey.

The Grayhounds and Bloodhounds split their series this year with Fort Madison limiting the usually potent Burlington offense in December to win 49-39 but the Grayhound offense found their groove in the rematch with a narrow 51-47 victory.

In the recent pass of this matchup, Fort Madison has taken down Burlington in the postseason twice since 2018 both by close margins. In the 2018-19 season, the Bloodhounds snuck out with a 46-44 victory and last year they stumped Burlington 51-44.

If Fort Madison wants to come up with the upset win, they have to be the aggressor. In their win, the Bloodhounds made 11 more free throws and forced 11 more turnovers. In their loss, Burlington kept everything even and controlled the boards with 17 offensive rebounds.

The winner of this game will travel to #4 Central DeWitt on Saturday, February 22^nd.

Burlington Player to Watch: Mylee Stiefel (18.7 points, 4.4 assists, and 2.7 steals per game and has scored 39 combined points in last two games against Fort Madison)

Fort Madison Player to Watch: Dayonna Davis (13 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.4 steals per game and scored 26 points in their win)

On the bottom half of the bracket, Mt. Pleasant will get a quick rematch with the Chiefs down in Keokuk. The Chiefs have won their past five matchups against the Panthers after Mt. Pleasant pulled off the upset back in 2022 51-46.

Since that win, Keokuk has made it their mission to decimate the Panthers, limiting Mt. Pleasant to just 22 points per game in their last matchups, while averaging nearly 70 points per contest against the Maroon and Gold.

In their most recent matchup, Keokuk’s pressure defense forced 30 turnovers as Mt. Pleasant struggled to get any of their shots to fall. Something else to note, the Panthers were without their star guard Abby Carthey for the matchup, and they have been missing Alexa Fuller down in the post for their last eight contests.

The upset will not be an easy one, but it starts with taking care of the basketball for Mt. Pleasant with 76 combined turnovers in their two matchups. They will also have to limit last year’s SEC Player of the Year in Kendra Boatman, who is averaging 28.5 points and 9.5 steals against the Panthers.

The winner will venture north to play #12 Clear Creek-Amana in the semifinals on Saturday, February 22^nd.

Mt. Pleasant Player to Watch: Kynlee White (6.2 points and 1.6 steals per game. She is typically assigned the opposing team’s best offensive player on defense)

Keokuk Player to Watch: Kendra Boatman (21.4 points, 5.7 assists, and 5.2 steals per game)

IGHSAU Rankings

The IGHSAU also released their latest rankings, which includes their final rankings for Classes 1A, 2A, and 3A and Mediapolis held strong in the top 15.

Class 3A

Mt. Vernon, Dubuque Wahlert, and Williamsburg kept strong as the top three teams for the rankings and the top eight teams received the same memo and did not change positions. Mediapolis went against the current and leapfrogged one team to be ranked #13 for the final rankings of the season.

After finally appearing in the rankings for the first time this year last week, the Bulldogs handled business with a resounding 66-12 win over Columbus as this suffocating defense of Mediapolis tabbed their 17^th game this season of at least 20 steals as they lead the state in steals per game.

Their offense is almost as impressive, averaging 67.1 points per game, which ranks 4^th in the state and first in Class 3A. It is consistency and a knack for sharing the ball for the Bulldogs with three players averaging double figure points per night and the most assists per night in the state.

Mediapolis will begin their postseason journey on Saturday, February 15^th, at 7 pm against Washington at home.

For a full list of the rankings, follow the provided link: IGHSAU Rankings

NAIA- The sixth edition of the NAIA men’s basketball coaches Top 25 poll and Mt. Pleasant’s brand of winning certainly knows how to travel as a trio of former Panthers and a duo of Tigers find themselves climbing the poll for another week.

William Woods University patrolled by former Iowa Wesleyan head coach Jordan Ashton has led his team into the top 10 rankings for the first time this season, jumping up five spots from last week’s rankings to #9.

After losing back-to-back games in mid-November to a now-ranked #6 Dordt and a then-ranked #11 Central Baptist College by a combined eight points, the Owls have rattled off 17 consecutive victories.

To illustrate the domination during this 17-game winning streak, the Owls have collected 12 wins by double digits and scored over 90 points in seven of the wins, including three instances of scoring 100 points on their opponent.

Their biggest contest during this streak was a rematch against then-ranked #17 Central Baptist College—now ranked 18^th—in front of the Owl faithful. Down at the half, the Owls dropped 47 second-half points to exit with a top 25 victory, 79-74, as D’Mari Wiltz put up 21 points for William Woods.

Recently getting heralded was a pair of former Iowa Wesleyan Tigers, Francis Okwuosah and Henry Shannon III. Okwuosah was named AMC Offensive Player of the Week 18.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game last week, which included an 87-80 win over Columbia College, William Woods’ first at Columbia in seven years.

Shannon earned AMC Defensive Player of the Week as he tabbed three blocks, three steals, and ripped down 17 boards in their three wins last week. His best performance included a 14 point and two block performance to officially sweep Columbia for the first time in seven years.

Also seeing time on the court is former Panther Aaiden Ashton as he is averaging 5 points per game in his 19 game appearances as a sophomore. Payton Hagans, also a Mt. Pleasant native, is a freshman on the team.

The Owls have three more games before jumping into the AMC Tournament on February 27^th.