Boys’ State Basketball

The Iowa High School Athletic Association’s (IHSAA) state tournament continued yesterday with two upsets highlighting the night. 

In Class 4A, #6 Johnston’s defense stymied any attempt at a comeback for #3 Waukee Northwest as the Dragons escaped with a 48-42 victory. Tino Daye led the scoring with 15 points. 

#2 Waukee avoided the upset, beating #7 Prairie, 57-51, behind 51.2% shooting from the field. Max Roach netted 18 points in the winning effort. 

#6 Johnston will attempt another upset tomorrow, March 12th, at 12:15 pm against #2 Waukee.

For Class 1A, #1 St. Edmond’s 19 to 6 run in the second quarter was all the Gaels needed as they thumped Woodbine, 60-44. Hunter Horn, a member of the All-Tournament team last year, snatched 17 points in the winning effort. 

In a game that was closer than it needed to be, #4 Burlington Notre Dame stood their ground and downed #5 Bellevue, 68-62, behind a slew of three-pointers. The Nikes roared out to multiple large runs in the first half as Shay Stephens scored 21 of his 26 points in the first half, but Bellevue was not going to go down easy, as Nike head coach Dan Kies predicted in his halftime speech,

“We knew they’re gonna make a run. You know, they’re here for a reason. They’ve got good athletes, they got size. So, I mean, the big thing is to say we’re battle-tested enough that we just need to hang in there and stay calm, do our thing, you know, take a little bit better shots, and just find a way to get it done, you know.”

It was Notre Dame’s first victory at the state tournament since 1981. They will look to knock off #1 St. Edmond tomorrow at 2 pm in the semifinals. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 1:45 pm.

#2 MMCRU never struggled with #7 Boyden-Hull last night, beating the Comets 58-39. Four of the five Royal starters finished in double figures.

Lastly, #6 Marquette Catholic held strong to pull off the 58-55 upset against #3 Bishop Garrigan in the last game of the night. Justin Severson notched an 11 point and 15 rebound double-double in the winning effort. 

#6 Marquette Catholic will look for another upset when they take on #2 MMCRU tomorrow at 3:45 pm.

The Class 2A quarterfinals will commence today.

For Class 3A, #1 Ballard and #5 Carroll will play tonight at 5:30 pm. #2 ADM and #3 Storm Lake will tangle tonight at 7:15 pm.

In Class 4A, Cedar Falls will face off against Dowling Catholic tomorrow at 10:30 am in the semifinals. 

Girls’ High School Basketball

A handful of local athletes will be participating in the Larry Niemeyer Senior Girls All-Star basketball tournament scheduled for Saturday, March 14th.

In Class 2A, Danville’s Alaina Gourley will play on the Gray Team with their game at 1 pm.

Over in Class 3A, Adalyn Long of Washington will join a trio from the Southeast Iowa Super Conference in Kenna Sandoval of Central Lee and Grace Holsteen and Ellah Wagenbach of Mediapolis on the White Team. They will play at 10:30 am. 

Lastly, Kendra Boatman of Keokuk and Burlington’s Mylee Stiefel will join sides for the Gray Team in a combination of Class 3A/4A/5A talent. They will square off at 9:15 am.

High School Track and Field

The Dickinson Relays continued yesterday with the girls’ team partaking in the action and a couple local athletes found a spot inside the top five for their respective events.

Danville’s Alaina Gourley made the most of her one event as the senior cruised to a silver medal finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes and 23 seconds. Ella Howell of Columbus took 23rd in the event, while Ellie Freeman of Mt. Pleasant snatched 38th place.

WACO’s Bren Graber claimed 47th place in the 60-meter hurdles and 32nd place in the high jump. 

The long jump saw WACO’s Madelyn Farmer leap 15 feet and 4.75 inches for 29th place, while Izzy Sloat of Mt. Pleasant soared to a distance of 16 feet and 10 inches for 8th place.

The shot put displayed the strength of the area as Mt. Pleasant’s Ella Ensminger led the region with a 4th place throw of 39 feet and 0.5 inches, while her teammate, Paityn Ensminger, launched it 32 feet and 5.75 inches for 28th place. Bella Forbes of Columbus claimed 18th place with a toss of 34 feet and 7 inches.

In the relays, Mt. Pleasant’s group of Lindsay Hart, Elizabeth Mullin, Elodie Rawson, and Haylay Lydolph took 27th in the 4×400 with a time of 4 minutes and 50 seconds. 

In the 4×800, Columbus finished in 40th place with Mt. Pleasant snatching 26th place with a time of 11 minutes and 22 seconds, but leading the pack was WACO’s crew of Josie Dykstra, Carlee Lunsford, Aliya Graber, and Macie Carter as they claimed a time of 10 minutes and 42 seconds, which was good enough for 14th place. 

The IATC Indoor Track Championships will start tomorrow, March 12th, at Iowa State University.

Southeastern Community College

The baseball team will travel to Delgado Community College on Saturday, March 14th. 

The softball team will travel to St. Louis Community College on Monday, March 16th, for a doubleheader.

College Basketball

The #7 Iowa and Iowa State women’s teams will see their postseason fate determined on the Selection Sunday Show on March 15th at 7 pm.

The Iowa men’s team will take on Maryland at 11 am today to begin their path in the Big Ten Tournament. 

The #7 Iowa State men’s team will face off against Arizona State today at 11:30 am for their first Big 12 tournament game. 

This Day in Sports History

1912 – First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep.

1986 – New York Islanders Mike Bossy is the first NHL player to score 50 goals in nine straight seasons.

1991 – Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf’s streak of 186 weeks ranked as the #1 women’s tennis player.

Des Moines, IA- It had been 17 years since #4 Burlington Notre Dame had attended the state tournament and the Nikes had not won a game at the state tournament since their program’s first appearance in 1981. 32 minutes later and Notre Dame wiped all those statements away as the Nikes outlasted #5 Bellevue, 68-62, in the Class 1A Quarterfinals.

Notre Dame knew they had to come into the game prepared, which meant pilgrimages to Carver Hawkeye Arena and Drake University to practice shooting in arenas similar to the Casey’s Center, even with a nine-day layover since the substate championship.

For Nike head coach Dan Kies, there was some worry about how his team would handle that time,

“Right, I hope so. You know, it’s a long week in between. You know, you don’t play anybody after substate for so long, so you’re trying to keep things fresh. You’re watching film. You’re working on different things but trying to keep it so it’s not just so monotonous and boring that they lose interest. So, yeah, we can take a breath, enjoy this day, and then get back at it, you know, tomorrow morning.”

Notre Dame responded by going on an 8 to 2 run, which included a three pointer by Payne Prottsman and three free throws from Shay Stephens. That turned out to be just a small taste of what Stephens would deliver the rest of the half.

Still, Bellevue would answer the call by scoring the last four points of the quarter to make it 15 to 11 in favor of the Nikes at the end of the first quarter. The Nikes responded by going on an 11 to 0 run to start the quarter and outscore the Comets 19 to 7 for the second quarter to take a 34 to 18 halftime lead.

Stephens was responsible for 21 of the team’s 34 points as he buried four threes himself. After hitting just three three-pointers against Calamus-Wheatland, Notre Dame buried nine against Bellevue, an aspect of the game coach Kies was happy to see return at state,

“I mean, it’s one of those things. We’ve got Shay, obviously, and then we’ve got Griffin. Payne can knock down threes, Tatum can knock threes down, Kellan can knock down threes, Eli can knock down threes. I don’t think he hit one today, but they’ve all got confidence to shoot it. So, the big thing there is knowing, hey, trust each other. When they’re doubling, Shay, or trying to triple, whatever, find a spot, get open. And he trusts his teammates, you know, so that’s a big thing.”

Despite holding a lead as large as twenty, the Comets found themselves hurtling back into the game after raging back with a 12 to 4 run to start the third quarter and eventually cut the lead to four points, 49 to 45, at the end of the third quarter.

That would be as close as Bellevue would orbit to taking over the Notre Dame lead as a Griffin Kies three pointer proved to be the dagger with the help of the team going 17-22 from the free throw line. It was clear that the Nikes never panicked.

“We knew they’re gonna make a run” said Coach Kies. “You know, they’re here for a reason. They’ve got good athletes, they got size. So, I mean, the big thing is to say we’re battle-tested enough that we just need to hang in there and stay calm, do our thing, you know, take a little bit better shots, and just find a way to get it done, you know.”

Notre Dame will now attempt to make it back to the state championship for the first time since 1981, but standing in their way will be #1 St. Edmond on Thursday, March 12^th, at 2 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 1:45 PM.

Notre Dame Scoring: Shay Stephens 26 points, Griffin Kies 12 points, Payne Prottsman 8 points, Kellan Porter 7 points, L.J. Harris 6 points, Tatum Warner 5 points, Eli Oleson 4 points