Sports, November 23rd

High School Basketball

The girls’ basketball season tipped off last night and Winfield-Mt. Union clobbered New London 65-28 to start the season off with a road victory. The Wolves won the game from the post as Kynlee Buffington secured her first career double-double with 23 points and 17 rebounds, while Josie Nelson put up 17 points and 11 rebounds for her own double-double. Winfield-Mt. Union head coach Mendy McCreight talked about her two post players after the game, 

“It’s great. Our two post players, Kynlee Buffington and Josie Nelson, really stepped up for us. Josie had a lot of great put backs on rebounds. She’s tough on the boards. She’s all over the floor as you saw tonight. Kynlee played an amazing game and she was so nervous stepping in, playing that starting role as a freshman. But she came in and did really well for us and led us to a victory.”

New London had Morgan Jones, Maison Nelson, and Megan Lee each score eight points in the loss. The Tigers will hit the road to face off against Davis County on Tuesday, November 26th, at 6 pm. 

The Winfield-Mt. Union girls’ team will host Pekin on Tuesday at 6 pm for their home opener. 

WACO took on Van Buren County in a scrimmage last night and swept the night with the girls’ winning 51-47 and the boys’ exiting with the victory 65-50. The WACO girls’ team will travel to Wapello on Tuesday for the first game of the season with tipoff at 6 pm. 

West Burlington will scrimmage Fort Madison at home tonight at 6 pm. 

Holy Trinity Catholic will compete against Keokuk today for a scrimmage on the road. 

High School Girls’ Basketball Rankings

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released the preseason rankings yesterday and Keokuk entered the Class 4A rankings at #13. The Chiefs will be looking for their fourth straight conference title as Southeast Conference Player of the Year for 2023 Kendra Boatman returns to the lineup for her junior season. Keokuk will start the season at home against Quincy Notre Dame at 7:30 pm on Tuesday as they look to build upon their 19 win season last year. 

Postseason Football

West Lyon’s defense shut down Spirit Lake on their way to the Class 2A state championship in a 42-7 thrashing. The Wildcat defense forced five turnovers and allowed only eight rushing yards in the win. Tate Hawf rushed for 114 yards and two touchdowns as West Lyon claimed their sixth state title in program history. 

The Class 3A championship belongs to Wahlert Catholic after the Golden Eagles demolished Humboldt 49-14 yesterday. Tom Scherr had a complete game for Wahlert Catholic, collecting 177 all-purpose yards and three total touchdowns. This was the Golden Eagles’ first state championship in school history.

In the most improbable game of the night, Valley scored 28 unanswered points to take a 35 to 24 lead late in the Class 5A championship, but Southeast Polk is now a four-time defending state champion for a reason as the Rams scored two touchdowns in the final 90 seconds to win 38-35. Holden Hanson carved up the Tiger defense for 332 passing yards and five total touchdowns. 

High School Wrestling

The Mt. Pleasant and Mediapolis girls’ teams will travel to Burlington for the Grayhound Invite today at 10 am. Mt. Pleasant head coach Anthony Blint is excited to see how his team performs today,

“Well just all of them to look out for you know it’s the first competition against other people so that’ll be the biggest thing to see where we’re at this early season and know what we need to build on for later in the year but of course Zenlynn Lee coming back off knee surgery from last year so we’ll see there and young freshmen there so we’ll just see what we have and see what we need to build on.”

The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union and Fairfield girls’ teams will travel to Wilton for a tournament today.

The WACO girls’ team will participate in a tournament at BGM today.

Southeastern Community College

The men’s basketball team picked up another narrow victory last night against North Arkansas College 77-73. The Blackhawks will take on Missouri State University tonight to conclude the Grizzly Classic. 

College Football

#22 Iowa State will face off against Utah tonight at 6:30 pm on the road. KILJ 98.5 FM and AM 1130 will be on the call.

Iowa will travel to Maryland today at 11 am. KILJ 105.5 FM will have the broadcast. 

College Basketball

The #5 Iowa State men’s team will play #4 Auburn in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Monday, November 25th, at 8 pm. 

The Iowa men’s team’s poor three-point shooting grounded the Hawkeyes last night as Utah State escaped with a 77-69 victory. Brock Harding led the scoring with 19 points, while Owen Freeman tabbed a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Iowa will compete against USC Upstate on Tuesday, November 26th, at 7 pm at home. 

The #8 Iowa State women’s team will head back home to take on Drake tomorrow, November 24th, at 2 pm. 

The Iowa women’s team will host Washington State tomorrow at 3 pm. 

This Day in Sports History

1984 – Boston College Quarterback Doug Flutie passes for 472 yards, including the game ending 48 yard touchdown to beat Miami 47-45.

1991 – Brigham Young University quarterback Ty Detmer finishes with a then-NCAA career record of 15,031 passing yards.

1991 – The Sacramento Kings end the NBA’s longest road losing streak at 43 games.