Iowa City, IA- Iowa City High has now been the setting for heartbreak and triumph fo4 #4 Burlington Notre Dame in back-to-back years. This season the Nikes will celebrate the latter after defeating Calamus-Wheatland 63-53 last night for the Class 1A Substate 5 championship.

(Picture from Notre Dame Athletics Facebook)

Along with the victory, the Nikes will be heading back to Des Moines for the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s Boys’ State Basketball Tournament for the fourth time in their program’s history and for the first time in 15 years, two years before Dan Kies took over as head coach.

“Yeah, fantastic for me, and I was watching at that time, and it’s just been a battle” said coach Kies. “I mean, we’ve been close to getting there a couple times, and just to get over the hump is great, and I think it’ll be great for the school, great for the community to see another team from our area to get back there.”

(The Kies Family Celebrating with the Banner)

A year ago, the Nikes were turned away in the substate championship by North Linn. Though with the bulk of the starting lineup returning, Notre Dame was ready to run it back and no one seemed more determined than Shay Stephens,

“I mean it’s great. I’ve spent my last four years working for this moment so it’s really big for me and really big for our team.”

In a battle between two 23-2 squads, Calamus-Wheatland, who posted a losing record the previous season and had not advanced past the second round of the postseason in five of the last six seasons, appeared outmatched at the beginning of the game with Notre Dame jumping passing lanes and Stephens connecting for the first five points of the game.

That trend would continue for the remainder of the first quarter with Chase Klatt, the Warriors’ leading scorer, mustering a couple of tough shots to fall. Nevertheless, the Nikes exited the first quarter leading 18 to 7, much like they had for most of the season.

Despite scoring 63 points, the Nikes struggled to shoot the ball from beyond the arc with only three three-pointers in the contest—their first time hitting less than four since their 7^th game of the season. Nonetheless, the Nikes won because of their physicality and clutch shooting.

“Yeah, I mean, offensively we weren’t great” said coach Kies. “We missed some shots we should have made here and there in the half court. We, you know, nothing special. We did play well in transition, got some deflections, got some steals, but I thought the biggest thing we did was we competed on the glass and with a team that’s a really good rebounding team. I mean, they average a lot of offensive boards, so that was a focus. It was like, hey, we got a rebound like, and we’ve been a good rebounding team all year, so I thought that was huge is the rebounding side of things.”

Stephens and Eli Oleson kept the Nikes afloat in the second half, especially Oleson, who scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half. Though helping supply that physicality was another senior in Payne Prottsman, who finished the night with seven points. Him and Oleson were on the state baseball team for the summer of 2023, still the special feeling never goes away,

“Oh, it’s always a special feeling to be able to go up to Des Moines and baseball for Carroll, but going to Des Moines for basketball, we haven’t done that in a while. So, it’s very exciting to be able to go and show what Burlington, Iowa can do.”

This group will represent southeast Iowa in Des Moines on Tuesday, March 10^th, as the #4-seed, meaning they will be the home team when they face off against #5 (22-3) Bellevue, the Substate 3 champion, at 3:45 pm. When asked what made this team special coach Kies, Prottsman, and Stephens had a similar answer, yet Stephens was the most succinct,

“I mean chemistry is our biggest thing. We all love each other, we’re all great friends so I think that’s the biggest thing. It ties in our defense, ties in our offense so got to have chemistry and be a good team.”

With the hard part behind them, its now time to have some fun, which should not be too difficult for this squad according to coach Kies,

“… They don’t all hang around all the time, but just seeing them together, they know how to relax together and have a good time and kind of push the basketball to the back of their minds. So, it’s a pretty light-hearted group, and it kind of makes that fun.”

KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 3:15 pm.

Notre Dame Scoring: Shay Stephens and Eli Oleson 18 points, Griffin Kies 12 points, Payne Prottsman 7 points, L.J. Harris 6 points, Kellen Porter 2 points

Boys’ District Basketball

In Class 1A Substate 5, #4 Burlington Notre Dame and Calamus-Wheatland will face off for the Substate 5 championship today at 4 pm at Iowa City High. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 3:45 pm.

In Class 3A, #3 Keokuk will travel to #1 Pella for the Substate 5 championship on Monday, March 2nd, at 7 pm. 

Girls’ Postseason Basketball

For the Class 3A state tournament, #7 Mediapolis will square off against #2 Maquoketa for the state quarterfinals on Monday, March 2nd, at 8:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 8:15 pm.

The other Class 3A matchups include #1 Mt. Vernon taking on #8 Cherokee Washington, #4 Wahlert Catholic will face off against #5 Williamsburg, and #3 Des Moines Christian will tangle with #6 Forest City.

All-Southeast Conference Teams

The Southeast Conference (SEC) released their All-Conference teams for boys’ and girls’ basketball and Keokuk swept not only the conference crowns but the Player of the Year awards.

Starting with the girls’ teams, Kendra Boatman not only snatched the SEC title back for Keokuk but also earned her second SEC Player of the Year honor. The senior averaged 26.3 points, 4.9 assists, and five steals per game, which led the conference in each category. Moreover, she was named to the First Team all four years.

Elizabeth Mason, a teammate of Boatman, was also a unanimous choice for the First Team along with Mylee Stiefel of Burlington and Dayonna Davis of Fort Madison. Stiefel was second in scoring and led the SEC in blocks per game, while Davis finished top five in the conference in points, rebounds, and steals per game.

Hadley Wolfe of Fort Madison and Adalyn Long of Washington rounded out the rest of the First Team honors.

Over on the Honorable Mention list, Fairfield placed two seniors on the list in Faith Jones and Elyse Setterstrom, as they finished as the team’s two leading scorers. Jones nabbed a steal per game, while Setterstrom grabbed 7.2 rebounds per contest.

Mt. Pleasant was led by Abby Carthey, as she was the conductor of the offense. Along with notching nearly two assists per game, she finished with 7.7 points per game. Joining her was Paityn Ensminger. The junior will look to take over the leadership role next season after putting up 6.7 points per game and consistently generating second chances for the Panthers with 2.7 offensive rebounds per contest.

On the boys’ side, Keokuk’s Jaxon Clark led the Chiefs to their first SEC title since the 2014-15 season and to consecutive substrate championship games all while averaging a dominant double-double of 28.6 points and 17.5 rebounds. He was also a unanimous All-SEC First Team choice.

Joining Clark on the First Team as a unanimous selection was Nolan Guzman of Fort Madison and Jett Morris of Burlington. The pair finished 2nd and 3rd in conference for points per game. 

Mt. Pleasant put two on the First Team in Isaiah and Noah Lange. Isaiah Lange was superman for the Panthers, tabbing the 5th most points per game (14), 3rd most rebounds (7.9), and the 6th highest field goal percentage (59.2%). His play got even better when Noah Lange got back into the lineup after winter break. In his 12 games on the court, Lange put up 11 points per game to go along with nearly seven rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Pointedly, with Noah on the court, the Panthers went 8-4.

Lastly, Nic Stone of Washington earned a spot on the First Team after averaging 3.3 three pointers made per game to lead the conference.

Additionally for Mt. Pleasant, finding a spot on the Second Team was Ryan Helling. The sophomore played in six less games, but still averaged the 2nd most three pointers made per game on 38.5% shooting to knock in 11 points per game.

On the Honorable Mention list was Aiden Humble and Grayson Lowery. In the two years as a starter, Humble buried 110 three pointers, which is the most in a two-year span going to the 2006-07 season. Lowery proved hard work paid off after going from first man off the bench to the starting lineup for 17 of the 22 games.

For Fairfield, Ethan Bisgard and Eli Zillman were placed on the Honorable Mention list.

For a full look at the All-Conference teams, then follow the links provided.

All-SEC Girls’ Basketball: All-SEC Girls’ Basketball

All-SEC Boys’ Basketball: All-SEC Boys’ Basketball

Middle School Wrestling

The 2026 AAU Kids State Wrestling Championships will be taking place today and tomorrow, March 1st, in Des Moines and Mt. Pleasant will be sending five wrestlers to the Casey’s Center in Jayden Maher, Kingston Baccam, Jackson Osterhaus, Carter Lawrence, and Axel Avalos Ramirez.

Southeastern Community College

The men’s basketball team will travel to Marshalltown Community College tonight at 7 pm for their regular season finale. 

The baseball team fell to Delgado Community College yesterday, 8-2. Efrain Osorio tallied three hits in the losing effort. The Blackhawks will play two today starting with a matchup against College of DuPage at 3 pm on the road.

The softball team split their two games yesterday falling to Metropolitan Community College 11-10 in extra innings then shutting out Fort Scott Community College, 8-0, to bounce back. The Blackhawks will continue the Midwest Classic today. 

College Basketball

The Iowa State women’s team will square off against Kansas State tomorrow, March 1st, on the road at 1 pm.

The #9 Iowa women’s team will take on Wisconsin on the road tomorrow at 2 pm.

The Iowa men’s team will travel to Penn State today with tip-off at 11 am.

The #4 Iowa State men’s team will face off against #16 Texas Tech today at 3 pm. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will have the call.

This Day in Sports History

1940 – The first televised basketball game (University of Pittsburgh beats Fordham University, 50-37).

1967 – Wilt Chamberlain sinks an NBA record 35th consecutive field goal.

1998 – Vancouver Canucks Mark Messier is the 4th NHL player to collect 1,600 points.