High School Girls’ Postseason Basketball
Class 2A started yesterday off with a couple of upsets as #5 Central Lyon knocked off unbeaten #1 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 63-49 and #3 Hinton continued their undefeated campaign after defeating #2 Regina Catholic 51-45. Aubrey Metzger collected a double-double with 22 points and 16 rebounds for the Lions, while the Blackhawks are in their second championship game in program history. Central Lyon and Hinton will square off today at 4:45 pm for the Class 2A championship.
In Class 1A, #1 St. Albert scraped past #4 Bishop Garrigan 59-51 as Avah Underwood logged another double-double (12 points and 16 rebounds) as they search for their program’s first state championship. Awaiting them will be #3 Newell-Fonda, for a record 13th championship appearance, after the Mustangs outdueled #2 North Linn 48-38 yesterday. The championship bout will round out the night at 7 pm.
In not much of a surprise in Class 5A, #1 Johnston ended another season undefeated as the Dragons are now back-to-back state champions after taking down Dowling Catholic 55-44. Kelli Kalb led the scoring with 13 points, while Amani Jenkins was named All-Tournament captain.
In Class 3A, Sydney Huber’s 24 points lifted #1 Mt. Vernon to their program’s second state title in a 47-35 defensive showing against #2 Wahlert Catholic. Huber was also named All-Tournament captain and Top Producer of the Game.
Lastly, for Class 4A, #8 Xavier will look to continue their Cinderella story against #2 North Polk today at 2:30 pm for the state title.
High School Boys’ Postseason Basketball
Class 4A will tip-off the state tournament on Monday, March 10th, with #4 Waukee Northwest facing off against #5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy. The winner will play either #1 Cedar Falls or #8 Dubuque Senior. The bottom half of the bracket features #2 Linn-Mar taking on #7 Waukee and #3 Valley competing against #6 Ames.
Class 3A will split up their matches with the top half of the bracket playing on Monday and the bottom half of the bracket facing off on Tuesday. #1 Clear Lake will take on #8 Central DeWitt and #4 Storm Lake will face off against #5 ADM on Monday, while #2 Knoxville will compete against #7 Xavier and #3 Ballard will square off against #6 MOC-Floyd Valley.
In Class 2A, #1 Western Christian will look to avoid the upset against #8 Jesup, while #4 Grand View Christian will take on #5 Treynor. On the bottom half of the bracket, #2 West Lyon will tangle with #7 Union Community, while #3 Unity Christian will verse #6 Grundy Center.
Class 1A will have to wait until Wednesday, March 12th, for their first matchup with #4 Gladbrook-Reinbeck looking to knock off the defending champion #5 North Linn. The winner will take on either #1 Marquette Catholic or #8 Remsen St. Mary’s. #2 Madrid will face off against #7 Boyden-Hull, while #6 Woodbine will look to pull off the upset against #3 St. Edmond.
Mt. Pleasant Girls’ Basketball
The Panthers held their end of season banquet last night and handed out the team awards to the players. Myah Starr and Kaylen Hunold received the Panther Award, while Addison Clark and Paityn Ensminger walked away with the Coaches Award. Jayden Yoder received Most Improved. The senior duo of Alexa Fuller and Charice Auwerda were named offensive and defensive MVPs, respectively. Lastly, Kynlee White earned Team MVP. Head coach Curt Watson talked about his three main leaders and the impact they had on the team,
“Kynlee [White] ended up being our leading scorer and we always put her on the best offensive player of the other team, and it was close. I mean, Kynlee deserves this. She played really well for us, and she was always pretty consistent out there. Alexa Fuller was our offensive MVP, and I think she was second or third and scoring on there and she missed like 9 or 10 games for us and came back in the district game and with one leg and that’s the one lasting impression I’m ever going to have of Alexa just being there playing that last district game for us. And then Charice was, if she didn’t have the top offensive player, Kynlee did, and Cherise would also alternate with her and have the next best offensive player and Charice just did an awesome job too.”
Southeastern Community College
The men’s basketball team will travel to Indian Hills Community College tonight to play for the Region 11 championship with tip-off at 7 pm.
College Basketball
The #10 Iowa State men’s team will attempt to venture back into the win column today at 12:30 pm against Kansas State on the road.
The Iowa men’s team will face off against Nebraska on the road tomorrow, March 9th, at 11:30 am for their regular season finale.
The last time the #11-seed Iowa women’s team met with the #3-seed Ohio State, the Buckeyes exited with an overtime victory. Predictably, the game came down to the wire and again the Buckeyes picked up a close win, 60-59. Hannah Stuelke gathered a 14 point/12 rebound double-double in the losing effort. This finished the Hawkeyes’ run through the Big Ten tournament.
The Iowa State women’s team was unable to pull off the upset against Baylor in the Big 12 quarterfinals, losing 69-63. Audi Crooks was the only source of offense with 32 points. The Cyclones will have to wait until Sunday, March 16th, to see if they will get a spot in the National Championship bracket.
This Day in Sports History
1930 – Baseball slugger Babe Ruth signs 2-year contract for a then huge $160,000 with NY Yankees; GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts “No one will ever be paid more than Ruth.”
1936 – The first stock car race was held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1971 – Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali’s 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC; retains heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in the “Fight of the Century.”