By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
Girls Basketball: Winfield Survives, Advances; WACO Moves On; NL Falls:
No. 9 (1A) Winfield-Mount Union 53, Holy Trinity 42
A big third quarter propelled the No. 9 (1A) Winfield-Mount Union Lady Wolves to a 53-42 over the Holy Trinity Crusaders in a Class 1A, Region 5 first round matchup in Winfield, last night.
Farrah Nelson led the way for the Lady Wolves with 14 points — 12 of which came in the first half — and 16 rebounds.
Kyndal Townsley added 12 points, while Jami Wilkerson chipped in with eight points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Jobey Malone finished with seven points and eight boards.
Natalie Randolph led Holy Trinity with 13 points, including making two three-pointers.
The win improved Winfield-Mount Union to 17-0, they’ll take on Calamus-Wheatland on Tuesday, February 16th in second-round matchup.
The Warriors defeated Lone Tree 53-20 last night.
Holy Trinity ends their regular season at 5-17.
No. 10 (1A) Notre Dame 63, New London 37
Jim Myers earned win No. 100 at Notre Dame, as the Nike girls’ basketball team picked up a 63-37 win in the first round of the Class 1A, Region 5 playoffs last night at Father Minnett Gymnasium.
Megan Harrell led all scorers with 26 for the Nikes — she also canned five three-pointers — while Karli Artman added 10 points.
Marah Hartrick paced New London with 12 points, while Ashlyn McSorely added eight.
Sophie Malott scored seven for New London, who ends their season 3-16.
Notre Dame now advances to the second round where they will take on WACO, who defeated Highland last night.
WACO 56, Highland 50
Ellah Kissell poured in 24 points as WACO snuck by Highland in a Class 1A, Region 5 first round tilt in Wayland last night.
Aubri Garnsey added 12 points for the Warriors, hitting two threes in the process.
Highland was led by Highland with 20 points, while Abby Stransky scored 16.
WACO improved their season ledger to 8-12.
Again, they’ll play at No. 10 Notre Dame next Tuesday in a Class 1A, Region 5 quarterfinal.
Boys’ Basketball: Mount Pleasant Falls to Burlington, New London Rolls:
Burlington 61, Mount Pleasant 45
The Mount Pleasant boys’ basketball fell down early and could not rally, as Burlington rolled to a 61-45 Southeast Conference win over the Panthers last night.
Amarion Davis was the high-point man for Burlington, scoring 18 points. Michael Alexander chipped in with 15.
The win for the Grayhounds exacted some revenge on a pre-Christmas double overtime loss to Mount Pleasant in Burlington.
Now 7-10 and 5-3 in conference play, Burlington is just one half-game back of first place Washington.
Mount Pleasant dropped to 11-9, they’re now 4-4 in Southeast Conference action.
They’ll look to get back into the win column tonight when they travel to Fairfield.
New London 71, No. 8 (2A) Pekin 54
A statement was made loud and clear in Southeast Iowa last night, as Blaise Porter ripped No. 8 (2A) Pekin for 29 points as New London rolled to a 71-54 win over the Panthers in the defacto Super Conference Championship.
The Shootout Game, which paired the top-seed from the North Division (Pekin) and South Division (New London) could not have gone better for New London.
Camden Kasel and Kade Benjamin each aided Porter’s heroic effort with 15 points, while Devin Swanson added 10.
The win moved New London to 16-4, while Pekin stumbled to 16-2.
New London will open their postseason surge on Monday on FM 105.5 when they take on Lisbon in a first round matchup at 7:00 p.m.
The KILJ Tournament Trail Tip-Off Show will begin at 6:45 p.m.
Boys’ Basketball: 1A Play-In Round Begins Tonight:
The Class 1A Boys’ playoffs begin tonight with the playoff round — which means the KILJ Tournament Trail continues on as we travel to Winfield-Mount Union for a Class 1A, Substate 4 play-in round matchup between the Wolves and Columbus Community (1-16).
This will be the second meeting between the schools this year, with Winfield taking the only matchup 62-33, back on January 5th.
The winner of this play-in round tilt will Burlington Notre Dame next week Monday.
Winfield-Mount Union, who enters the postseason at 8-9, is led by Cam Buffington — a freshman — who is averaging 17.7 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
Fellow freshman Abram Edwards is the other double figure scorer, pouring in 12.7 points and leads the team averaging 9.3 rebounds.
Columbus’ lone win came back on January 15th — they defeated Louisa-Muscatine 35-34.
The Wildcats are led by senior Mason Hodges, who scores 8.9 points per game.
Owen Watson averages 7.8 points and 5.6 rebounds for Columbus, as well.
The winner of tonight’s game will play Burlington Notre Dame (12-6) in a first round game on Monday.
In other play-in round action in Substate 4, WACO (3-17) will travel to Highland.
The winner of WACO-Highland will get top-seeded Springville.
College Football: Iowa State Announces 2021 Schedule:
The Big 12 Conference announced its 2021 league football schedule today.
Iowa State will have six home games and will begin the season hosting UNI (Sept. 4) and Iowa (Sept. 11) in the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.
A road trip to UNLV (Sept. 18) precedes the beginning of the Big 12 Conference season on Sept. 25 when the Cyclones travel to Baylor.
The Cyclones’ lone bye week is on October 9th.
The full schedule is here:
Sept. 4 UNI
Sept. 11 IOWA
Sept. 18 at UNLV
Sept. 25 at Baylor
Oct. 2 KANSAS
Oct. 16 at Kansas State
Oct. 23 OKLAHOMA STATE
Oct. 30 at West Virginia
Nov. 6 TEXAS
Nov. 13 at Texas Tech
Nov. 20 at Oklahoma
Nov. 27 TCU
Dec. 4 Big 12 Championship Game