Prep Boys’ Basketball-The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) released their sixth edition of this season’s rankings as we await the announcement of the substate brackets with postseason play set to start for Class 1A on Friday, February 14th.
Class 4A
No teams were knocked out of the top 15 but a team was bounced from the top three and it was not the two favorites, Cedar Falls and Valley at #1 and #2, respectively. Cedar Rapids Kennedy faced a gauntlet last week with #4 Linn-Mar and #5 Waukee Northwest on the schedule.
Unfortunately for the Cougars a two-point loss and an embarrassing 29-point loss caused Kennedy to fall back to #6 in the rankings, while Linn-Marr hopped up to #3 and Waukee Northwest took over the void at #4.
Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln’s bid for a perfect season was trounced last Friday in a narrow 71-66 loss at the hands of Sioux City East. The Lynx fell back to #9 in the rankings due to the loss.
Class 3A
The top four remained the same with Clear Lake holding the crown for the second year in a row. Decorah and Knoxville round out the top three, respectively. MOC-Floyd Valley might be on a two-game win streak but consecutive losses to end January and start February caused them to slide from #5 to #7 in the rankings.
Waverly-Shell Rock’s nine-game win streak, including a 20-point victory over Class 2A’s #9 Cascade promoted the Go Hawks from #8 to #6 in this week’s rankings.
No teams were dropped from the rankings.
Class 2A
Some light juggling mixed up the top ten with another top three team losing their spot. West Lyon turned back time to the 4th edition of the rankings with a 71-70 victory over Unity Christian, thus the two teams reverted to their #3-#4 rankings led by the Wildcats.
West Burlington kept their #10 spot after handing business at the Southeast Iowa Super Conference shootout with a 76-42 thrashing of Hillcrest Academy, winning the conference crown for the third straight season. The Falcons tout one of the best offenses in the state with four players averaging double figures and they are giving up the ball less than 10 times per game.
Class 1A
Havoc infiltrated the rankings for Class 1A after you get through the first three teams with Marquette Catholic sitting above everyone with a 20-0 record followed by Madrid, also undefeated, and MMCRU.
The fall starts with Woodbine as the Tigers were rolling on a five-game win streak having just dropped 100 points on Ar-W-Va to end January. Then unranked Coon Rapids-Bayard held them to just 25 points in a 29-point victory in front of the home crowd, demoting Woodbine from #4 to #9 in this week’s rankings, while the Crusader jumped up to #7.
The next team to feel the wrath of the rankings was Remsen St. Mary’s. Even back-to-back 40-plus point thumpings could not alleviate the pain of a 68-40 loss to Class 2A’s Spirit Lake. Thus, casting the Hawks out of the top 10.
Lastly, Bishop Garrigan had their nine-game win streak snapped by Forest City 45-29 last Tuesday and a narrow win over West Hancock did not convince the committee to keep them in the top 10.
Replacing the Golden Bears? Burlington Notre Dame at #10. The Nikes were ranked #9 two weeks ago, but a rough schedule: Class 2A’s #9 Regina Catholic and #10 West Burlington, knocked the squad out of the top 10 after competitive losses.
But a 65-52 win over WACO in the #2-seed contest propelled the Nikes back into the conversation with a 16-4 record, every loss coming against a team that has seen time in the rankings. This team runs through junior Shay Stephens and Jack Drew.
Stephens averages 21.4 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists per night, while Drew nets 17.3 points per game and led the scoring against the Warriors in an uncharacteristic off night for Stephens.
More
For a full list of the rankings, follow the provided link: IHSAA Top 10