Boys basketball postseason begins in earnest: South Winn seeks to build off terrific regular season

CEDAR RAPIDS - Every boys basketball team has questions going into a season.

Can we make up for the loss of the guys we graduated? Can we rebound well enough considering we are not the tallest team?

Do we have guys who can shoot the 3-pointer? Is our defense improved from a season ago?

All that stuff.

But for South Winneshiek, it wasn’t matter of personnel. It was a matter of if that personnel would be able to play.

“I've got three seniors that have played varsity for four years,” said Warriors head coach Derek Taylor. “I've got one that's played in every varsity game in four years, and I've got two that have been hurt at some stretch in all four years and in the last two years in particular.

“So, like, if you want to start this season out in a long version, it was like ‘Can we finally stay healthy here?’”

Guard-forward Carson Streeter injured a knee last January after having issues with an ankle and knee as a sophomore. Forward-guard Matson Winings got a concussion last season after dealing with a hip issue as a sophomore.

Someone must have given those kids a four-leaf clover because they’ve played in every game this season. So has guard Braiden Todd, the other four-year dude.

Thus, South Winneshiek takes an 18-3 record in the postseason. The Warriors open Class 1A district play Monday night at home against Lansing Kee (8-13).

Class 1A and 2A games are being played around the state Monday night. All tipoff are at 7.

“We've had some ups and downs this year, but I'd say over the last two and a half to three weeks, and we've been healthy all year, we’ve played well,” Taylor said. “I mean, the two conference teams that we lost to early in the season, we beat both of them by 20 points here at the end of the season. We finally have had a chance to get everyone playing.

“All those guys are seniors, they've been playing forever, but we really haven't played that many games together. So getting through the season healthy and just watching the team progress has been the lion's share of it. Just finally getting a chance to get everybody together, get things ironed out, get better.”

South Winn lost its first go-around with Crestwood and Waukon but avenged those losses with back-to-back wins to end the regular season. The other loss was to Wapsie Valley, which is the top seed in the teams’ district.

Winings leads the Warriors in scoring at 17.9 points per game, followed by Streeter (15.1), Todd (15.0) and sophomore Jordan Einck (10.2). Cale Kleppe is the other starter.

Taylor’s freshman son, Evan, has played every game off the bench. South Winneshiek finished second to Crestwood in the Big Division of the new Upper Iowa Conference.

“For me, it's the best thing that's ever happened for our school,” Coach Taylor said. “We're the smallest school in the big division. But from a sports standpoint, we're competitive in every conference (race) for wrestling, basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball. So for us, it gives us competition, right?”

Below are all of Monday’s games.

---

Class 1A District Quarterfinals

Metro-Area

State

Class 2A District Quarterfinals

Area

State

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com