Sports, Friday, March 5th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Girls’ Basketball: Three State Games Set: 

The Iowa High School Girls’ State Basketball Tournament continued on in Des Moines yesterday and three state championship games have been set.

Here’s a look at yesterday’s finals:

3A: 

No. 4 West Lyon 52, No. 1 Cherokee 39

No. 3 Unity Christian 58, No. 2 Clear Lake 42

4A: 

No. 1 Glenwood 61, No. 5 North Scott 48

No. 2 Ballard 32, No. 3 Dallas Center-Grimes 26

5A: 

No. 1 Waukee 50, No. 5 Ankeny Centennial 29

No. 2 Johnston 52, No. 6 Iowa City West 47

College Softball: Wesleyan Tied for Fourth in Preseason Poll:

The Iowa Wesleyan softball team was picked to finish in fourth place this year, following the release of the SLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll.

Wesleyan returns 14 players from last year’s squad including Morgan Christner, Kayla Ford and Alex Eyman.

That trio were all named SLIAC “Players to Watch” this spring.

Head Coach Mike Hampton returns for his 28th season at Iowa Wesleyan.

He is joined by assistant Ben Fry, who is going into his fourth season, and Erin Riding, who is beginning her first season with the Tigers.

Iowa Wesleyan will open their season against Graceland University on March 17th.

The team’s home opener will be on April 2nd against Greenville University.

Men’s College Basketball: Iowa State Loses Again, Iowa Throttles Nebraska:

Texas Tech 81, Iowa State 54 

Jalen Coleman-Lands and Tyler Harris had 15 points apiece but Iowa State was beaten 81-54 by Texas Tech yesterday.

Solomon Young added 10 points for the Clones.

Iowa State fell to 2-20 and 0-17 in conference play.

They’ll take on Kansas State tomorrow afternoon, tip is set for 4:00 p.m.

Iowa 102, Nebraska 64 

Iowa made 16 3-point shots as they cruised to a 102-64 win over Nebraska last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Jordan Bohannan paced Iowa with 26 points, including making eight treys.

Patrick McCaffrey had 19 while Luka Garza added 14.

The win moved Iowa to 19-7 and 13-6 in Big Ten play.

They’ll take on Wisconsin Sunday morning at home.

Tip is set for 11:30 a.m.

College Baseball: Iowa Picked to Finish 4th in Big Ten:

Iowa is picked to finish fourth in the 2021 Big Ten Baseball Preseason Poll, the conference announced yesterday.

The Hawkeyes are behind No. 21 Michigan, Indiana and Ohio State, but landed three on the preseason watch list in catcher Austin Martin, outfielder Ben Norman and LHP Trenton Wallace.

Iowa will get their season started this weekend with a four-game set against the nationally ranked Wolverines in Round Rock, Texas.

First pitch tomorrow is set for 6:00 p.m.