The Exira-EHK Spartans girls basketball team held serve on their home floor Saturday evening with a 57-52 win over the Kuemper Catholic Knights.  The Spartans set the tone early with their tough defense and raced out to a 16-5 early lead and led by 5 at 18-13 at the end of the 1st. The Spartans pushed that advantage to 13 by halftime 35-22. Kuemper Catholic clawed their way back within 4 by the end of the third. The Knights would take a one point lead midway through the fourth quarter at 50-49. That was their first lead since a 3-2 advantage early in the game. The Spartans responded immediately as freshman Tatum Grubbs drove to the hoop and got fouled. She stepped up and hit the free throws to put the Spartans back ahead by one and they wouldn’t trail again.

Free throws were big in sealing the victory as the Spartans made 11-12 in the fourth quarter and 17-23 for the game. Sophia Peppers went 8 of 8 at the stripe in the fourth quarter and finished as the leading scorer with 19 points. Grubbs finished with 12 and Kealey Nelson had 11. The Spartans improved to 14-1 and have a big game at CAM next on Tuesday night.

The Knights were led by 17 points from Aimee Adams and 12 from Kara Peter. The Knights are now 11-5 and will host Harlan next Friday.

Listen to a post-game interview with Exira-EHK Head Coach Tom Petersen below.

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The Atlantic-CAM wrestling team took a third place finish at the John J Harris Invitational that wrapped up Saturday in Corning. The Trojans were edged out by just a point and a half by Creston Orient-Macksburg for that second spot 165 to 163.5. Missouri Valley was the runaway team champion with 230.5 points.

The Trojans had two champions and two runner-up finishers at the tourney. Kole Hansen took the title at 126 pounds and John McConkey was a winner at 285. Joe Weaver was a runner-up at 106 and Chase McLaren was 2nd at 132.  John McConkey also earned his 100th career pin during the day, putting him among elite company in Iowa High School Wrestling history.

The Trojans also earned the Sportsmanship award at the tournament.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Reed Timmer scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half and Drake survived miserable 3-point shooting to beat Missouri State 61-58 on Saturday. The victory left the Bulldogs (12-9, 6-2) alone atop the Missouri Valley Conference with Loyola of Chicago (5-1) playing Sunday.

The Bulldogs were only 3 of 26 from the arc. But Timmer broke the final tie with two free throws with six minutes left then added a layup and four more free throws in the final minute.

With Drake leading 60-58, the Bulldogs’ C.J. Rivers missed two free throws with nine seconds left but J.T. Miller missed a short jumper and Nick McGlynn, who had two big blocks late, grabbed the rebound.

Drake made its first 17 free throws until Rivers’ misses while the Bears were 5 of 7. Jarrid Rhodes and Jarred Dixon scored 15 points each for Missouri State (15-6, 5-3).

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Freshman Cameron Lard scored 18 points and Iowa State cruised past No. 8 Texas Tech 70-52 on Saturday, its first win over a ranked opponent this season.

Nick Weiler-Babb, Lindell Wigginton and Donovan Jackson each added 13 points for the Cyclones (11-7, 2-5 Big 12), who handed the Red Raiders (15-4, 4-3) their second straight loss to an unranked opponent on the road.

The Cyclones jumped ahead 31-18 late in the first half. That seemed to wake up the Red Raiders, who responded with a run to go up 35-34.

But Iowa State answered with a 13-1 burst capped by Wigginton’s jumper that gave put the Cyclones ahead 47-36. Weiler-Babb’s desperation 3 to beat the shot clock made it 57-40 with 7:26 left. He buried another clock-beating 3 on a turnaround to push the lead to 69-49.

Zhaire Smith had 10 points for Tech, whose leading scorer Keenan Evans was held to seven points on 2 of 12 shooting.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Carsen Edwards scored 22 points and Vincent Edwards had 19 Saturday, leading No. 3 Purdue to its 15th straight victory with an 87-64 rout of Iowa. P.J. Thompson added 14 points for the Boilermakers (19-2, 8-0 Big Ten). Purdue ended a four-game road losing streak against the Hawkeyes (10-11, 1-7) by making 20 of 33 3-pointers.

Luka Gazra had 19 points for Iowa, which has dropped five of its last six games. The Hawkeyes went on a late 13-3 run to prevent the final margin from becoming even more lopsided.

This was the first game the Hawkeyes played all year against a ranked opponent, and the Boilermakers exposed them. Iowa remains one of the nation’s most disappointing teams — but this was perhaps the worst the program has looked since the three-year stint of Todd Lickliter last decade.

Iowa hosts Wisconsin on Tuesday.