Elkader Central’s record at the break: 7 wins, no losses, 3 postponements

Here is what has stopped the Elkader Central girls’ basketball team in the front half of its schedule:

The weather. And that’s it.

Like the majority of teams in far northeast Iowa, Central has faced multiple weather-related postponements. Three of them, so far.

“We’ve had plenty of them, and that worries me,” Warriors Coach Mark Wiley said. “We’ve got a lot of games stacked up in January.”

For instance, Central will play five games in a seven-day stretch beginning Jan. 17.

“We’ll have to rest their legs when we can,” Wiley said.

But for now, and through the holiday break, the Warriors can enjoy this: 7-0.

And they can ponder this: They are clear front-runners to win their first Upper Iowa Conference championship since 1976.

“We definitely want to win it, and we want to make a deep run in the postseason tournament,” Wiley said.

The Warriors enhanced their non-conference schedule, adding Maquoketa Valley, Springville and Edgewood-Colesburg from the Tri-Rivers Conference (they won all three), plus Class 3A Waukon (which they’ll face Jan. 26 on the road).

“Not all of the competition (in the UIC) is that strong, so we knew the kids needed to be tested more,” Wiley said.

Central opened the season ranked No. 9 in Class 1A, and that’s where it remains through one-third of the season.

The Warriors are averaging a robust 60.3 points per game, allowing 39.7.

It’s a veteran crew, with two seniors and three juniors in the starting lineup and three key seniors coming off the bench.

Senior Delaney Scherf leads the way at 17.6 points per game. She hit the 1,000-point mark in Central’s 70-40 win over Turkey Valley on Tuesday, a win that put the Warriors alone in first place in the UIC.

“She’s just a gym rat, and like most gym rats, she can shoot,” Wiley said. “You can’t just pick up the ball yesterday and be successful today.”

Junior Ashlyn Scherf adds 13.2 points per game, senior Haley Frieden 9.8.

Leaders at the break

Clear Creek Amana junior Bliss Beck is the state leader (all classes) in field-goal percentage, at .731.

Other area players in the top five in their respective categories:

* Maggie Criswell of Waukon is third in assists per game (6.9).

* Jesup’s Laney Pilcher is No. 3 in scoring (25.6 points per game).

* Iowa City West’s Lucy Wolf is fifth in 3-point percentage (.571).

* As a team, North Linn is among the leaders in several categories — second in victory margin (40.8 points per game), third in scoring (73.6 ppg), fourth in field-goal percentage (.481), 3-point percentage (.381) and 3-pointers per game (8.9), and fifth in assists per game (18.8).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com