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Iowa high school boys’ state basketball 2023: Thursday’s scores, stats and more
Semifinal games determine championship matchups in 2A, 3A and 4A
The 2023 Iowa high school boys’ state basketball tournament continues Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines with six more semifinal games. Stay up to date with scores, stats and more here throughout the day.
Boys’ state basketball coverage
» Cedar Rapids Xavier rolls past Sioux City Heelan in the Class 3A semifinals
» Boys’ state basketball schedule: A look at Friday’s championship games
» Updated boys’ state basketball brackets, schedule, scores
Thursday’s Class 4A boys’ state basketball scores
No. 3 Waukee Northwest 66, No. 2 Waukee 46
Northwest (23-2) made 10 of 21 3-point attempts and rolled in the all-Waukee rubber match to advance to its first title game in the program’s second year.
The Wolves blew the game open with a 26-4 run to take a 33-20 halftime lead. They scored the first six points of the second half, too, and extended the advantage to as much as 24 in the second half.
Cade Kelderman rarely missed, scoring a game-high 26 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range, and an 8-for-8 mark at the free-throw line. Pryce Sandfort had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Omaha Biliew led Waukee (23-3) with 21.
Northwest won the first meeting between the rivals this year, 67-65, but the Warriors had won 13 straight games, including a 77-55 decision against the Wolves in January.
No. 4 West Des Moines Valley 58, Pleasant Valley 51
A first-half slugfest was flipped after halftime as West Des Moines Valley took over with a 22-2 third quarter.
The score was just 5-4 Pleasant Valley after the first quarter and the Spartans led 18-13 at halftime. But the Tigers (20-5) got going after the break, sparked in part by six PV turnovers, two of which contributed to transition dunks.
Zay Robinson scored 15 points to lead the Tigers. Kiki Deng had 11. Max Muszalski had a game-high 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Spartans.
Valley, with four sophomores in the starting lineup, is in the state finals for the first time since 2017. It won it all the year before.
PV took down top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy in Wednesday’s quarterfinals but saw its Cinderella run end here with a 20-6 record.
Thursday’s Class 3A boys’ state basketball scores
No. 4 Cedar Rapids Xavier 72, No. 10 Sioux City Heelan 59
Xavier has a pair of tremendous hoops-only players in senior wing Aidan Yamilkoski and junior point guard Joe Bean. Six-foot-8 junior center Tyler Netolicky has become an interior presence.
Josef Lemker, Thomas Sundell, Aidan McDermott and Michael Cunningham are the gridiron guys, significant parts of Xavier’s state championship football team in the fall. Those eight guys all contributed in a very good performance here in which Xavier (20-6) led from start to finish.
Almost from start to finish, truthfully. Heelan (19-7) got the first points of this game (on a 3-pointer), but Xavier rattled off the next 15 and never trailed after that.
“It has just meshed together well,” said Lemker, who hit a couple of rally killing shots in the second half and scored 19 points overall. “We all play together well, we know each other well, we get along really well. They support us in football, and we do what we can on the basketball court. There’s just a good family bond to this team that carries over.”
The Saints are seeking that impressive football-basketball double, their first basketball championship since going back to back in 2016 and 2017.
» Read more from The Gazette’s Jeff Johnson
» Photo gallery from The Gazette’s Nick Rohlman
No. 1 Bondurant-Farrar 54, No. 7 North Polk 45
Tied 42-42 with 6:10 remaining, Bondurant-Farrar (25-0) scored the next 11 points, holding North Polk scoreless for 5 1/2 minutes of game time to advance to the Class 3A title game.
Bondurant-Farrar was responsible for half of the Comets’ losses this season. North Polk (20-6) didn’t trail in the first half and was up 39-38 entering the fourth quarter, but missed nine of its first 10 shots in the final period.
Jaxson Fried led Bondurant-Farrar with 15 points and eight rebounds. Cole Miller added 12 and seven, while Reed Pfaltzgraff and Colby Collison both tallied 11 points. North Polk’s Reggie Postel was 4-for-7 from 3-point range and scored a game-high 16 points.
The Bluejays are in the state finals for the first time since winning it all in Class 2A in 1997, their only other championship game appearance.
Thursday’s Class 2A boys’ state basketball scores
No. 5 Western Christian 79, No. 2 Roland-Story 61
Western Christian (22-3) pulled away with 45 second-half points and advanced to its 12th state championship game.
Tied at 43 in the third quarter, Western went on a 9-0 run to take control. It then outscored Roland-Story 25-13 in the fourth.
Kaden VanRegenmorter displayed all-around excellence with 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting, 9-for-11 from the free-throw line, eight rebounds and seven assists. Tate VanRegenmorter had 18 points, Karsten Moret 17.
Jonovan Wilkinson and Isaiah Naylor both scored 19 for the Norsemen (25-2).
The Wolfpack will play Central Lyon at 3 p.m. Friday. Western is 10-1 in title games, the most-recent appearance and win coming in 2021.
No. 1 Central Lyon 56, Pella Christian 55
Six-foot-7 Andrew Austin (20 and 14) and 6-5 Reece Vander Zee (19 and seven) combined for 39 points and 21 rebounds as top-ranked Central Lyon held off Pella Christian in a terrific first game of the day.
Dane Greetings’ 3-pointer cut the lead to one with 17.3 seconds left and Central Lyon missed two front ends of one-and-ones, but Tysen De Vries’ corner 3 at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
The Eagles ended the third quarter on a 10-0 run to take a 42-38 lead, but the Lions shot 8-for-12 in the fourth quarter.
Central Lyon returns to the Class 2A title game after a runner-up finish in its first state tournament a year ago.
Greetings led the Eagles (16-10) with 20 points. The Little Hawkeye Conference’s run of four straight years with a state champion will end.
Xavier’s Aidan McDermott (1) shoots as Heelan’s Carter Kuehl defends during an IHSAA Class 3A state semifinal at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
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