The Exira-EHK Spartans girls basketball team will miss out on a trip to state after a cold night of shooting resulted in a 55-35 loss Wednesday night to the Westwood Rebels.

The Spartans realized quickly that they had their work cut out for them with the size of Westwood’s three forwards all being six feet or over. The Rebels came out of the gate scoring first with a jump shot in the low post. The Spartans responded with a Jaelynn Petersen lay up, but then watched Westwood go on multiple runs in the first to go up 15-7 at the end of the quarter. Then in the second quarter the shooting slowed down for Taryn Petersen as she was limited to six points in the first half, having difficulty scoring around the basket. The Rebels continued to utilize their size and continued to focus on feeding the ball inside and Exira-EHK seemed to have no response as Westwood went into halftime with a 25-14 lead.

At the start of the second half Coach Petersen had the Spartans come out in a new defensive look focusing on a full court press and traps. The new defensive strategy worked forcing turnover after turnover, but on the offensive end of the floor Exira-EHK still couldn’t connect their shots.  So, with a plethora of turnovers and a few made threes, Westwood firmly held on to their lead at the end of the third being up 35-22.

The fourth quarter saw little change for style of play for both teams as the Rebels looked to Addy Johnson and Ashlyn Davis for points inside the paint. Without a player to match up in size and the normally deadly accuracy from Taryn Petersen, Exira-EHK had to watch the clock wind down with Westwood celebrating a 55-35 victory.

When reflecting on the outcome of the game, Spartans Head Coach Tom Petersen was impressed by the defensive grit his team showed in the second half.

Exira-EHK was led the loss by 21 points from Jaelynn Petersen, 13 from Taryn Petersen, and Hannah Nelson chipped in one. This year’s group put in a lot of great effort, but Hannah Nelson is one senior that Coach Petersen looks back on proudly.

Westwood’s leading scorer was Addy Johnson with 19 and second was Ashlyn Davis scoring 15. With the victory, the Rebels improve to 21-0 and will start State Tournament play on Wednesday. When asked about the future, Coach Petersen is optimistic about next year’s team.

The Spartans now finish with a  16-7 record on the season.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The 18^th ranked University of Iowa baseball team defeated Loras, 20-6, in its home opener at Duane Banks Field on Tuesday night. It is believed to be the earliest home opener in program history.

“I was really pleased with how we played tonight,” said head coach Rick Heller. “The first four innings were outstanding, everything that you wanted to see happen, happened. The guys that you hoped would get some hits got them, we played great defense and got good pitching. It was really solid.”

The Hawkeye bats raced out to an early 10-0 lead after the first two innings. Raider Tello had a first inning two-run home run that cleared the scoreboard in left field in the first inning and the second inning saw an explosion of offense as Iowa plated eight.

Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue saw his first career action earning the start and was credited with the win following two scoreless innings of work allowing just one hit.

Seven other pitchers followed Cadiuex-Lanoue and the Hawkeye arms totaled 10 strikeouts,

while allowing just three earned runs. Benjamin DeTaeye and Justin Hackett each punched out three DuHawks in their respective inning of work.

Chas Wheatley, Brant Hogue and Drew Deremer each threw an inning without allowing a hit.

Sam Petersen was 3-for-3 on the night with an RBI, while Reese Moore went 3-for-4 and plated three RBIs for the Hawkeyes. Kyle Huckstorf added a fourth inning grand slam.

The DuHawks avoided the shutout plating runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings to cut into the Hawkeye lead.

12 different Hawkeyes scored a run in the contest led by Moore, Ben Wilmes and Gable Mitchell each with three.

Iowa (3-1) returns to action Friday, facing Auburn in the opening game of the Jax College Classic in Jacksonville, Florida.  First pitch is set for 5 p.m. (CT).

IOWA CITY, Iowa — P. Sue Beckwith, MD, Head Iowa women’s basketball coach, Lisa Bluder, was named to the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List on Wednesday. Bluder was a Semifinalist a season ago and was the recipient of the award in 2019.

Presented annually to the most outstanding men’s and women’s head coach who achieves tremendous on-court success.

Jersey Mike’s is proud to partner with the Naismith Awards in recognizing the outstanding efforts of collegiate athletes and coaches, rewarding their drive and achievements on the court.

Bluder has guided the program to its eighth consecutive season with 20 or more victories in her 24th year as the head coach at the University of Iowa. Under her direction, the Hawkeyes have the longest active streak at 15 weeks inside the AP Top 5.

Coach Notes

– Bluder owns 17 AP Top 10 wins which is the most in program history.

– Is third among active DI coaches in the country for most wins. (873)

– Longest tenured coach in the Big Ten conference.

– All-time winningest coach in Iowa women’s basketball history.

– Owns the most Big Ten conference wins in conference history.

– Has coached five out of the last six Big Ten players of the year.

– Won six Big Ten titles. (4 BTT’s and 2 Regular Season)

– Coached two consensus National Player of the Year.

– Has coached the Hawkeyes to 21 postseason appearances in 23 seasons, including NCAA Tournament berths in 13 of the last 15 seasons.

– She has led UI to the Sweet 16 (2021), Elite Eight (2019), National Championship (2023) in three out of the last four championship seasons. (Covid)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KETV) — The Iowa Western Community College Board of Trustees has approved the addition the Fall, of men’s and women’s swimming and diving to the Reivers’ (Ree’verz) athletic department. The program will operate out of the Lewis Central Community School District’s pool at Titan Hill Intermediate School.

There is no cost for Iowa Western Reivers to use the facilities for practice during the day. The pool will be available for Lewis Central High School swimmers after school. A national search for a coaching staff will begin immediately. The program is expected to begin by the end of March.

This time Iowa was able to close out a road win. The Hawkeyes built a 12-point halftime advantage and held off Michigan State 78-71, Tuesday. It was their second straight win as they move to 8-8 in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes shot 51 percent and committed only six turnovers.

That’s Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. With the victory the Hawkeyes move back into the top half of the Big Ten standings with four games to play.

Payton Sandfort led the Hawkeyes with 22 points. Ben Krikke had 18 points and added 14 rebounds as Iowa led by as may as 16 points in the second half.

Iowa visits 12th ranked Illinois on Saturday.

The (19-5) Exira-EHK Spartans Boys basketball team ends their season with a 56-49 loss to the Woodbine Tigers in the semi-final round of the Class 1A-Region 8 Substate. The Tigers got their inside game working early in the game, as Tigers Sophomore Jax Pryor scored nine points in the first quarter but was held scoreless in second quarter, as the Spartans took a seven point lead into halftime with a score of 31-24. Tigers junior Carter Gruver scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half. The Tigers took the lead back late in the 4th quarter at 51-49 and knocked down six big key free throws down the stretch to secure the win for the Tigers.

The Spartans had three guys in double figures on the night. Senior Cash Emgarten, who led the Spartans in scoring with 15 points and junior Josh Nelson and senior Jackson Radcliff each had 10 points in the game.

The toughest part of this loss for the Spartans they will be graduating seven seniors from this years team. Spartan head coach Tony Santistaben had to say about coaching these seniors this season in the first year as head coach of the Spartans.

Spartan senior guard Aiden Flathers reflected on the game against Woodbine, but he was sure glad about winning the Rolling Valley Conference this year.

Flathers said he is going to miss the most about playing Spartans basketball.

This loss for the Spartans boys basketball team will end their season and they will finish their season with a 19-5 overall record. This win for the Woodbine Tigers will put them in the Regional Championship game this Saturday in the Class 1A-Substate 8 championship game against the Madrid Tigers in Carroll. Tipoff at 7:00 pm.

(hawkeyesports.com) EAST LANSING, Mich. – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team defeated Michigan State, 78-71, on Tuesday night at the Breslin Center. The Hawkeyes move to 16-11 on the season and 8-8 in Big Ten conference play.

Graduate Ben Krikke secured his third double-double of the season. Krikke scored 18 points shooting 7-of-11 (64%) from the field. Krikke set a season high in rebounds with 14. He was just one rebound shy of tying his career high.

Junior Payton Sandfort led all scorers with 22 points, his seventh time this season finishing with 20+ points. Sandfort knocked down two threes and pulled in six rebounds.

Senior Patrick McCaffery rounded out the Hawkeyes in double-digits with 14 points. McCaffery grabbed four rebounds while shooting 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.

After a back-and-forth beginning to the first half that featured nine ties and four lead changes the Hawkeyes jumped on the Spartans. A 15-1 Iowa run with just over six minutes remaining in the half started with the Hawkeyes down three and ended with them leading the Spartans by 11. Iowa shot 16-of-28 (57%) from the field in the first half with three players in double-digits. Iowa handed Michigan State their largest halftime deficit at home this season, leading the Spartans, 45-33, at the break.

Iowa carried that momentum into the second half and extended their lead to 16 points in the first minute of the second half. The Spartans refused to go away, but the Hawkeyes had a response for every Michigan State run. Michigan State was able to cut the lead to five points with 2:30 remaining but Iowa would score the next five points to push their lead back to ten points. Krikke, Perkins and Sandfort combined to score 25 of the team’s 33 points in the second half.

Iowa finished the game shooting 28-of-55 (50.9%) from the field and 4-of-13 (30.8%) from deep. The Hawkeyes shot 18-of-23 from the free throw line (78.3%).

UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes continue on the road, traveling to Champaign on Saturday to face No. 12 Illinois at 1:15 p.m. (CT) at the State Farm Center.

Class 4A

Region 1 – Clear Creek Amana 68, Keokuk 35
Region 2 – Waverly-Shell Rock 43, Western Dubuque 37
Region 3 – Bishop Heelan 50, Winterset 21
Region 4 – Dallas-Center Grimes 58, Pella 45
Region 5 – North Polk 49, Maquoketa 42
Region 6 – Gilbert 60, Xavier 57
Region 7 – Sioux Center 61, Humboldt 45
Region 8 – Lewis Central 53, Norwalk 49

Class 5A

Region 1 – Johnston 93, Sioux City West 51
Region 2 – Davenport North 53, Cedar Rapids Washington 40
Region 3 – Dowling Catholic 73, Des Moines Roosevelt 26
Region 4 – Waukee 83, Iowa City West 58
Region 5 – Ankeny Centennial 53, Sioux City East 25
Region 6 – Pleasant Valley 52, Waukee Northwest 43
Region 7 – Cedar Falls 45, Prairie 35
Region 8 – Valley 39, Ankeny 36

Class 1A: Substate 1
District 1 – North Union 58 St. Edmond, 39
District 2 – South O’Brien 57 MMCRU, 44

Class 1A: Substate 7
District 13 – Lynnville-Sully, 60 ACGC, 46
District 14 – Bedford 36  East Mills, 34

Class 1A: Substate 8
District 15 – Madrid 55  Coon Rapids-Bayard, 41
District 16 – Woodbine 56  Exira-EHK, 49

Class 2A: Substate 6
District 11 – Kuemper Catholic 54 South Central, Calhoun, 53
District 12 – Grundy Center 77 Aplington-Parkersburg, 63

Class 2A: Substate 7
District 13 – Treynor 73 Van Meter, 63
District 14 –  Grand View Christian 68 Des Moines, Christian, 47

Class 2A: Substate 8
District 15 -Underwood 61 East Sac County, 51
District 16 -South Hamilton 65 Pleasantville, 57

The Drake men take a share of the Missouri Valley Conference lead into Wednesday night’s game at home against Belmont. The Bulldogs are 13-3 in the Valley but one of those losses was an 87-65 pounding at Belmont in early January that was not as close as the final score.

That’s Drake coach Darian DeVries. Belmont center Malik Dia poured in 32 points in the first meeting and standout Bruins guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie missed the game due to injury. Gillespie averages more than 17 points per game.

The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games and as several young players gain experience the Bulldogs are building more depth.

Belmont is part of a three-way tie for fourth in the Valley race at 9-7.