Prep Boys’ Basketball- The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has released the brackets for District play for Classes 1A and 2A as the preliminary round tips-off on Friday, February 14th, for Class 1A and all first-round action gets underway on Monday, February 17th, with all gametimes at 7 pm. Here’s a look at our local matchups.
Class 1A
Travel will be light for our local teams in Substate 4 District 8 as #10 Burlington Notre Dame locked down the top seed for the district, but Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC) rivalries will rule the bracket.
To start off play on Friday, New London will make the trip to Wapello with the winner advancing to take on #10 Burlington Notre Dame. The Tigers just fell to Wapello in the SEISC shootout by a considerable margin, 64-36.
It was their first matchup in nearly five years with New London having won the last three contests. London Franklin’s 20 points were dwarfed by Justyn Faulkner’s 31 points as he went 15 for 26 on the game, while tabbing four steals.
New London was limited to 21 less shots and outrebounded 35 to 11 in the loss. They will have to fix that if they want to win, while Wapello has a clear blueprint for victory.
New London Player to Watch: London Franklin (14.4 points per game)
Wapello Player to Watch: Justyn Faulkner (17.1 points and 4.9 assists per game)
For first-round action, the closest matchup will be between the #4 and #5 seeds and in this case, it was between two teams that battled for the #3 seed in the SEISC-North Division and despite Pekin coming out on top it will be Winfield-Mt. Union hosting the matchup.
The semantics behind the decision are a bit convoluted but essentially, the Wolves hold the head-to-head advantage having won their matchup back in early January 47-45 and their rematch will take place tomorrow, February 11th. Nevertheless, Pekin does hold the better conference record (12-3 vs 11-4).
With that out of the way, the last matchup nearly featured a 14-point comeback after the Panthers scored 19 fourth quarter points; however, Winfield-Mt. Union proved to be too much, holding on to win.
Cooper Buffington finished with a double-double for the Wolves, collecting 21 points and 10 rebounds. Both squads’ biggest scorers struggled in their last matchup, but turnovers certainly helped paint the picture with 23 turnovers for Pekin, while the Wolves coughed it up just 13 times.
Winfield-Mt. Union Player to Watch: Jake Edwards (19.2 points, 5.2 assists, and 5 steals per game)
Pekin Player to Watch: Nolan Glick (13.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game on 56.8% shooting)
In the #2-seed vs #7-seed matchup Holy Trinity Catholic will tangle with Columbus down in Fort Madison. The Crusaders were a win away from attending the state tournament last year and in Luke Hellige’s senior season they are hoping to make it a reality.
For the season, the Crusaders have handled other North competitors, defeating Waepllo 73-56 and just recently Pekin in the shootout 76-45. Those two games marked the sixth and seventh time this season they had scored over 70 points.
Columbus has gone 1-1 against the South this year with a 10-point win over New London, but a damaging loss to Van Buren County in the shootout 80-54. The Wildcats are currently trying to dig out of a six-game hole. The biggest issue for them is defense, in their 20 games this season they have held only one opponent under 50 points.
Holy Trinity Catholic Player to Watch: Luke Hellige (25.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game)
Columbus Player to Watch: Ellis Hills-Carrier (16.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game)
The final game of district 8 will take place at WACO with the #3-seed Warriors facing off against #6-seed Danville. This cross-divisional rivalry will see its renewal since they last took on one another in the 2021-22 season, the last season WACO was in the South Division.
It was that same year that Danville scraped by WACO 46-39 in the substate championship to punch their ticket to the state tournament for the first time for the coaching duo of Michael and Steven Soukup.
This year, WACO is a win against Wapello tomorrow night away from sharing the North crown with Hillcrest Academy, while Danville has managed just three wins against the South division but cleaned house against Lone Tree 61-41 in the shootout.
WACO Player to Watch: Christian Stacy (19.6 points and 2.8 steals per game)
Danville Player to Watch: Jaden Bauer (14.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game)
Here’s a list of the Substate 4 District 7 opponents as one of these teams will play the winner of District 8 to decide who will be attending the state tournament.
#1 North Linn, #2 Hillcrest Academy, #3 Keota, #4 Springville, #5 Cedar Valley Christian, #6 Lone Tree, #7 Central City, #8 Rivermont Collegiate, and #9 Highland.
Class 2A
Substate 5 will house all of our local teams with most of the matchups contained in District 9 but one outlier in District 10.
Starting in District 9, #10 West Burlington is the team to beat, earning a bye to the second round scheduled to be player on Thursday, February 20th. The #2-seed Mid-Prairie also earned a bye.
In the first round, the #4-seed Central Lee will compete against the #5-seed Louisa-Muscatine with the winner advancing to play #10 West Burlington. The Hawks just recently handled business against the Falcons 75-39 last Friday night in the shootout, scoring 50 points in the first half alone.
The most impressive game that Central Lee has produced this year was a 55-52 win over Holy Trinity Catholic back when the Crusaders were ranked in Class 1A. The Hawks buried nine threes by the night’s end and held a potent offense to just 39% shooting from the field.
Central Lee Player to Watch: Brayden Wyrick (12.6 points and 1.3 blocks per game)
Louisa-Muscatine Player to Watch: Finnegan Cline (22.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per game)
Mediapolis will enjoy a home contest as the #3-seed as the #6-seed Cardinal is set to hurtle into town. In their lone matchup, the Bulldogs exited with a 55-48 win over the Comets in the SEISC shootout back in the 2019 season, despite turning the ball over 29 times.
Cardinal would hang out in the SEISC for a couple more seasons before joining the South Central conference for the 2022-2023 season. Since joining, the Comets are a mere 3-39 in South Central play.
The Bulldogs are hoping to make it six consecutive years of winning at least one postseason contest. It has been a bit of mixed bag for the Bulldogs this season with a loss to Louisa-Muscatine but a big win over Holy Trinity Catholic and multiple games of 70-plus points but just recently being held to 36 points by Winfield-Mt. Union.
The winner of this game will travel to Mid-Prairie for the second-round matchup.
Mediapolis Player to Watch: Will Luttenegger (14.8 points, 4 assists, and 2.5 steals per game)
Cardinal Player to Watch: Chase Hengstenberg (13.4 points per game)
Over in District 10, Van Buren County nabbed the #5-seed and will hit the road to take on the #4-seed PCM.
The Warriors squashed Columbus at the shootout with a final score of 80-54. It was the first time this season that Van Buren County had hit the 80-point plateau, but they are no strangers to a litany of points.
The Warriors have scored 60-plus points in 10 of their 20 games this season, including four straight games of at least 61 points scored. The problem is winning those games as of late. They hold a 6-4 record after starting the year 4-0 in such games.
They will have to buckle down on defense to stop a PCM squad that is putting up 55 points per game.
The winner of the game will have the #1-seed of District 10 waiting for them in Grand View Christian.
Van Buren County Player to Watch: Izaak Loeffler (20.4 points and 1.9 steals per game)
PCM Player to Watch: Gavin VanGorp (13.4 points per game)
Other teams in District 10 include: #2 Davis County, #3 Pella Christian, and #6 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.
More
District brackets for Classes 3A and 4A will be released on Monday, February 17th.