Prep Basketball: State Basketball Opens Today
The IHSAA boys’ state basketball tournament begins today at Wells Fargo Arena with action kicking off in Class 1A.
The tournament will begin with Super Conference power and fifth-seed Danville hooking up with Lake Mills, who enters the tournament 24-1.
The Bulldogs cruised through the tournament rail with easy wins over West Bend-Mallard, West Hancock and Dunkerton after being tested by Graettinger-Terrill.
They’re paced by their outstanding senior tandem of Wyatt Helming and Bennett Berger
Helming scores 18.3 points per game, while Berger adds 14.4.
Both men shoot better than 33% from three and will be a tough cover for Danville’s wings.
They key to Danville has been the play of their senior forward Sawyer Nelson.
The big man is coming off a 20 point, 20 rebound effort in Danville’s three overtime substate final triumph over WACO.
Drake Johnson still leads the team with 13.5 points per game, while Caiden Gourley checks in just underneath that.
Today’s game will tip at 10:30 a.m. from Wells Fargo Arena.
Coverage will begin at 10:10 a.m. on FM 105.5 and kilj.com.
Nathan Bloechl and Kent Bennett will have the call.
Other action today will include:
- Grand View Christian vs. Bellevue
- North Linn vs. North Mahaska
- Remsen St. Mary’s vs. West Harrison
- Central Lyon vs. Read Oak (2A)
- Pella Christian vs. Roland-Story (2A)
Girls’ Basketball: Garrigan Closes Season with Win
The girls’ basketball season came to a close on Saturday with three state finals being played.
Algona Garrigan, who defeated Notre Dame in the quarterfinals last week went on to win the 1A State Championship after a 52-49 win over Marcus-Meridan-Cleghorn-Remsen-Union.
Other state finals played Saturday:
- Cedar Rapids Xavier 54, Bishop Heelan 40 (4A)
- Dike-New Hartford 59, Central Lyon 52 (2A)
- ELC 42, Ballard 30 (3A)
- Johnston 51, Waterloo West (5A)
College Wrestling: Iowa Advances 10 to NCAA Nationals
Ten Hawkeyes earned automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in Detroit on March 17-19 following this weekend’s Big Ten Tournament.
It marks the first time since 2010 Iowa earned 10 automatic berths to the national tournament.
The Big Ten Conference tournament is one of seven NCAA qualifying tournaments across the country.
The NCAA will announce the NCAA at-large qualifiers Tuesday. NCAA tournament brackets will be released Wednesday.
Among those qualifiers was Alex Marinelli who is now the eighth four-time conference champion in program history and the first since Mark Ironside in 1998.
Drake Ayala, a freshman from Fort Dodge, is just the fourth true freshman to earn a spot in the NCAA Championships.
He’s the first since 2020 and Abe Assad.
Women’s College Basketball: Iowa Claims Big Ten Championship
Iowa got 30 points and 10 boards from Monika Czinano has the Hawkeyes claimed the Big Ten Women’s basketball tournament championship with a 74-67 win over Indiana.
Caitlin Clark added 18 points and seven boards for the Hawks, while Kate Martin chipped in with 14 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
Iowa is now 23-7 on the year and earned an automatic qualification to the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament.
Most bracket experts have Iowa pegged as a three-seed on Monday.
Men’s College Basketball: Drake Falls in MVC Champ
Loyola held off Drake, 64-58, to win the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament yesterday.
Guard Roman Penn led Drake with 18 points, including 12 in the second half, while dishing out four assists. Freshman Tucker DeVries added 15 points, while setting a career high with five blocked shots. DeVries moved into No. 7 on the MVC freshman single season scoring list with 474 points
DeVries and Penn were selected to the MVC All-Tournament team.
The Bulldogs, who had a season-best seven-game winning streak snapped, slipped to 24-10 and will now await their postseason fate.