The Atlantic girls basketball team earned a big road win over St. Albert 49-44 on Thursday night. The Trojans had a strong second quarter and built a 23-12 lead by halftime and built the lead up to 20 points at one point in the second half. The Saintes rallied strong in the fourth but Atlantic held on for the win.

The Trojans were led by 18 points from Paytn Harter, 13 from Maddie Huddleson, and 12 from Maddie Richter. Atlantic improves to 11-4 on the season. The Trojans will now get set to host Creston on Monday. We’ll have that game on KJAN.

St. Albert was led by 14 from Ellie Monahan and 12 points from Missy Evezic. The Saintes fall to 13-2.

Grand View Christian showed why they are the top-ranked team in Class 1A as they pulled away for a 79-39 win over Atlantic on Thursday night. The Trojans couldn’t figure out how to deal with the huge size difference inside and the Thunder got their shooting rolling in the second half. Atlantic head coach Derek Hall said they just didn’t play well enough for the full contest.

Led by 7-foot senior Daniel Tobiloba and 6’9″ sophomore Emilio Berrantes the Thunder locked down the defensive end of the floor, blocking a bevy of shot attempts throughout the night. Both teams didn’t shoot great in the first half but Grand View Christian did enough to grab a comfortable 32-17 lead at the break. Then the flood gates opened up with a 28 point third quarter from the Thunder led by four triples in the period from senior guard Frankie Chiodo. Fellow senior guard Josh Sanderson had 8 of his game high 21 points in the third as well and the Thunder rolled to victory. Coach Hall said they didn’t adjust well enough to the Thunder’s shot blocking ability.

Berrantes finished with 18, including a couple early two-hand slams, and Chiodo finished with 16, all in the second half. Noah John also added 10 for the Thunder and Tobiloba had 8. Grand View Christian improved to 14-0 on the season and will now get set to face Dallas Center-Grimes on Saturday at the Gilbert Showcase.

Atlantic was led by 9 points from Carter Pellett. The Trojans fall to 4-10 on the season and will try to regroup this weekend to host Creston on Monday.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa junior forward Kris Murray has been named to the Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List. The announcement was made Thursday by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. The USBWA’s list highlights 50 outstanding players from 18 different conferences.

Murray is also on the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 and the Karl Malone Award Watch List.

Former Hawkeye Luka Garza won the Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Trophy in 2021.

Murray (6-foot-8, 220 pounds) is averaging a team-best 21.2 points and nine rebounds per outing. He has increased his scoring average by 12.5 points per game this season compared to last year.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native has scored 30+ points four times this season (30 vs. Indiana; 32 at Penn State; 31 vs. Georgia Tech; 30 vs. Omaha). Murray is one of six players nationally with four or more 30-point performances and is the only player from a Power 5 conference. He is one of four Hawkeyes to score 30+ at least four times in the Fran McCaffery era, joining Luka Garza (13), Keegan Murray (5), and Peter Jok (5).

Murray missed four contests in December due to a lower body injury (Iowa State; Wisconsin; Southeast Missouri State; Eastern Illinois). He has scored 20+ points in 50 percent of games played this season (7-of-14). Murray has averaged 25 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.8 3-pointers made over the last five outings.

Murray and the Hawkeyes (12-6, 4-3) return to action Saturday at Ohio State (10-8, 2-5). The game will be televised nationally on FOX and broadcast on the Hawkeye Radio Network.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The men’s basketball game between Iowa and Northwestern, originally scheduled for Wednesday in Iowa City, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. (CT) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Wednesday’s contest was postponed due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Northwestern program.

All distributed tickets for the Northwestern-Iowa contest will be valid for the new date and time.

Iowa (12-6, 4-3) returns to action on Saturday at Ohio State (10-8, 2-5). Tipoff is slated for 1:01 p.m. (CT) at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association has released the host sites for the 2023 regional dual team tournaments.

Regional duals for all three classes will be held on Tuesday, January 31st at 6:00 p.m. at 8 sites across the state for each class. The winners at each site will qualify for the State Dual Team Tournament on Saturday, February 4th at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Teams that get to participate in the regional tournaments are determined by the finals IWCOA rankings, with the top 24 ranked teams in each class participating. The highest-ranked teams host. The top-ranked team at each site receives a bye in the first round. The winner of the first round dual then wrestles the top-ranked team in the final.

Assignments for each site will be announced following release of the final IWCOA rankings. Here are the sites.

Class 1A: Don Bosco, Wilton, Alburnett, Nashua-Plainfield, Lisbon, Logan-Magnolia, Emmetsburg, Woodbury Central

Class 2A:  Osage, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, West Delaware, Mount Vernon, Creston, Webster City, Humboldt, Williamsburg

Class 3A: Southeast Polk, Bettendorf, Waverly-Shell Rock, Ankeny, Linn-Mar, Ankeny Centennial, Valley, Johnston

The UNI men’s basketball team was able to fight off Illinois State for a 65-63 win at the McLeod Center on Wednesday night.

The Panthers led by three at the break thanks to a buzzer-beating three by Trey Campbell. He had 14 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 20 points to lead UNI to the win. Bowen Born added 11 points and 4 assists for the Panthers.

UNI improved to 11-9 overall and 6-3 in the Valley. Next up for the Panthers is a trip to Illinois-Chicago at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Drake’s 11-game home winning streak is over. The Bulldogs were held scoreless the final two minutes of overtime in a 65-62 loss to Missouri State. It was a game the Bulldogs led by 13 at halftime.

That’s Drake coach Darian DeVries.The Bulldogs led by as many as 14 points before the Bears turned the game around.

The Bulldogs only second 28 points after halftime.

Tucker DeVries led Drake with 26 points. The Bulldogs drop to 5-4 in Missouri Valley action.

The 18th ranked Iowa State women edged Oklahoma State 69-64 in Ames. With head coach Bill Fennelly attending the funeral of his mother associate head coach Jodi Steyer directed the Cyclones.

Steyer says the coaches were able to speak with Fennelly after the game.

The Cyclones improve to 4-2 in the Big 12.

A bizarre finish as the 10th ranked Iowa Hawkeye women escaped at Michigan State 84-81. It featured an intentional foul called on Iowa’s Caitlin Clark with five seconds remaining in overtime and the Hawkeyes leading by three and a Spartan turnover with two seconds remaining and a chance to win it.

That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. The Hawkeyes won despite being without two starters in overtime. McKenna Warnock left the game with an injury early in the third quarter and center Monica Czinano fouled out with just over two minutes remaining in regulation. She scored 22 points.

The Hawkeyes are 7-1 in the Big Ten