Boys’ District Basketball

In Class 1A Substate 5, #4 Burlington Notre Dame will be heading back to the state tournament for the first time in 15 years after defeating Calamus-Wheatland 63-53 over the weekend for the substate championship. Shay Stephens and Eli Oleson each collected 18 points in the winning effort. Nikes head coach Dan Kies knows this is a big moment for the Burlington community,

“Yeah, fantastic for me, and I was watching at that time, and it’s just been a battle. 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 Nikes grabbed the #4 seed and will face off against #5 Bellevue on Tuesday, March 10th, with tip-off at 3:45 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 3:30 pm.

In Class 3A, #3 Keokuk will travel to #1 Pella for the Substate 5 championship tonight at 7 pm. 

Girls’ Postseason Basketball

For the Class 3A state tournament, #7 Mediapolis will square off against #2 Maquoketa for the state quarterfinals tonight at 8:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 8:15 pm. Head coach Todd Borrison talked about what makes his team so special,

“Well, they really love each other, and they take care of each other, and they play together as a team. And I said before, our strength, our superpower is our balance. And that balance starts, to be a team of truly balanced kids, you gotta really like each other, and you gotta know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And they really get the game, and they really, ultimately, they don’t care who gets any credit. They just like to win, and that makes it a fun group, and a group that you like to see be successful.”

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.

The Class 5A quarterfinals will start off the day at 10 am.

All-Southeast Iowa Super Conference Teams

The Southeast Iowa Super Conference released their All-Conference teams for boys’ basketball for the North and South divisions yesterday and Burlington Notre Dame swept the South’s Player and Coach of the Year honors.

Shay Stephens took home Player of the Year for the South Division after leading the conference in points per game, assists per game, and steals per game. Nikes head coach Dan Kies was named Coach of the Year. 

Joining Stephens on the First Team for the South Division was his teammate L.J. Harris. Mediapolis put three on the First Team in Max Griffin, Will Luttenegger, and William Worrall. West Burlington had Silas Lotzow and Ayden Figuereo named to the First Team. Lastly, Will Hayes of Central Lee and Holy Trinity Catholic’s Layne Rung nabbed a spot.

For the North Division, Pekin’s Cole Millikin was named Player of the Year and Hillcrest Academy’s Stephen Bender claimed Coach of the Year.

Finding a spot on the First Team for the North Division was Cody Milks of Winfield-Mt. Union, WACO’s Holden Hughes, Ellis Hills-Carrier of Columbus, and Wapello’s Justyn Faulkner. 

Middle School Wrestling

The 2026 AAU Kids State Wrestling Championships is in the books and Mt. Pleasant’s Eric Steele nabbed second place in the 125-pound weight class in the 3rd-4th grade division after going 4-1 for the weekend.

Southeastern Community College

The men’s basketball team walloped Marshalltown Community College over the weekend, 69-33. The Blackhawks will get a rematch against the Tigers in the first round of the Region 11 tournament on Wednesday, March 4th, at home at 7 pm.

The baseball team wrapped up the weekend with a 3-0 record, sneaking past College of DuPage, 7-6, and Southwest Mississippi Community College, 9-7, before dismantling the Bears again 12-1. The Blackhawks will compete on Friday, March 6th, with another match against Southwest Mississippi Community College. 

The softball team finished the Midwest Classic with a 3-1 record after stomping Neosho County Community College, 12-0, and Allen County Community College, 10-4. SCC will take on Black Hawk College on Friday in a doubleheader. 

College Basketball

The Iowa State women’s team routed Kansas State yesterday, 93-79, to secure the 7th seed and a first-round bye for the Big 12 tournament. Audi Crooks was unstoppable, logging a 41 point/13 rebound double-double in the win. The Cyclones will get back to action on Thursday, March 5th, at 5:30 pm. 

The #9 Iowa women’s team snatched the #2-seed and a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament after clobbering Wisconsin, 81-52. Ava Heiden clinched a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. The Hawkeyes will get ready for action on Friday, March 6th, at 5:30 pm.

The Iowa men’s team fell to Penn State over the weekend in heartbreaking fashion, 71-69, as the Nittany Lions nailed two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining in the contest. The Hawkeyes will square off against #3 Michigan on Thursday at 7 pm.

The #4 Iowa State men’s team suffered their first loss at home this season after losing to #16 Texas Tech over the weekend, 82-73. Joshua Jefferson collected 22 points in the effort. The Cyclones will look to bounce back tonight on the road against #2 Arizona with tip-off at 8 pm. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will be on the call.

This Day in Sports History

1962 – Philadelphia center Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points, most ever by an NBA player in a single game, in Warriors’ 169-147 win over NY Knicks in Hershey; 36-of-63 from field, 28-of-32 from free-throw line.

1995 – Joe Mullen becomes the second NHL player to appear in 300 NHL games with 3 different teams when he plays for the Penguins in a 6-3 loss in Buffalo; Pittsburgh 379, St. Louis 301, Calgary 345.

2000 – The St. Louis Blues become just the 2nd team in NHL history to win 10 straight games on the road, with a 5-2 victory in Atlanta; they tied the mark set by Buffalo 1983-84.

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