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.