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Iowa high school boys’ state basketball 2023: Wednesday’s scores, stats and more
Class 4A wraps up quarterfinals, Class 1A begins semifinals
The 2023 Iowa high school boys’ state basketball tournament continues Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines as the quarterfinals wrap up with Class 4A and the semifinals begin with Class 1A. Stay up to date with scores, stats and more here throughout the day.
Boys’ state basketball coverage
» A miraculous North Linn comeback in boys’ state basketball semifinals
» Cedar Rapids Kennedy the victim in a first-round stunner
» Updated boys’ state basketball brackets, schedule, scores
Wednesday’s Class 1A boys’ state basketball scores
No. 2 North Linn 52, No. 7 Remsen St. Mary’s 50
They’ve won an amazing 208 of their last 215 games.
And of those 208, this one ranks at the very top of the improbability scale. Has to.
Down 16 points in the fourth quarter, having absolutely nothing going, their best player hobbling around the court and unable to do much of anything offensively because of a sprained ankle, the North Lynn Lynx suddenly and almost unexplainedly found magic Wednesday night.
Breckyn Betenbender’s 3-pointer with 30 seconds left capped a wild, out-of-the-blue 52-50 comeback win over Remsen St. Mary’s in a Class 1A state tournament semifinal at Wells Fargo Arena. This will be the sixth consecutive championship game appearance for North Linn (26-0), and this one comes as pretty much house money.
“I’ve been around basketball a lot and seen some crazy things happen. Probably crazier things than this,” said North Linn Coach Mike Hilmer. “But not in this spotlight down at the state tournament.”
» Read more from The Gazette’s Jeff Johnson
» Photo gallery from The Gazette’s Savannah Blake
No. 1 Grand View Christian 68, No. 4 West Harrison 50
Josh Sanderson went off for 24 points in the first quarter, making five 3-pointers as Grand View Christian jumped out to a 29-9 lead. The Thunder made it 46-16 at halftime, giving them plenty of cushion to withstand West Harrison’s second-half surge.
Sanderson finished with 41 points on 14-for-26 shooting, including 6-for-7 from 3-point range. Emiliano Barrantes had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Grand View Christian (26-0) is in the state finals for the second straight year and the fifth time in the last seven; it fell to North Linn a year ago.
Sage Evans had 17 points and nine boards for West Harrison (24-2).
Wednesday’s Class 4A boys’ state basketball scores
No. 4 West Des Moines Valley 63, No. 6 Norwalk 48
Red-hot Valley (19-5) shot 56.3 percent, including 8-of-15 from 3-point range. Norwalk (20-4) only had five turnovers but didn’t shoot well enough (33.9 percent) to win.
The Tigers were money at the free-throw line, too, making 19 of 20. Norwalk cut a 31-18 deficit to four multiple times in the second half, but Valley eventually put it away.
Four Tigers were in double-figures scoring: Zay Robinson (14), Kiki Deng (13), Curtis Stinson (12) and Trevin Jirak (12). Redek Born had a game-high 17 points for the Warriors.
Pleasant Valley 57, No. 1 Cedar Rapids Kennedy 45
Few saw that one coming. Very few.
But it was no fluke. In this game, on this court, on this day and time, Pleasant Valley was the better basketball team.
So Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s extraordinary, historic season concludes. Not with a state championship but a stunning 57-45 loss to Pleasant Valley in a Class 4A quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.
Wow. Just wow.
“Looking back on it right now, I don’t even know what went wrong with us,” said Kennedy’s Micah Schlaak. “We can’t blame anyone but ourselves.”
Kennedy averaged a 4A-high 77 points per game, known for making offensive runs that put games away quickly. But this was a slog, a half-court game in which Pleasant Valley ran the shot clock down repeatedly, didn’t turn the basketball over, hit big shots and expertly defended Kennedy’s all-state guard duo of Colby Dolphin and Kenzie Reed.
» Read more from The Gazette’s Jeff Johnson
» Photo gallery from The Gazette’s Savannah Blake
No. 3 Waukee Northwest 55, No. 10 Ankeny Centennial 37
Northwest (22-2) ended the first half on a 12-0 run to go up 23-16, then extended the lead with a 17-4 third quarter.
The win sets up an all-Waukee rubber match in Thursday night’s semifinals.
Iowa recruit Pryce Sandfort led the way with 24 points on 10-for-18 shooting, nine rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
Centennial (16-8) shot 22.9 percent.
No. 2 Waukee 58, Ames 40
Iowa State 5-star recruit Omaha Biliew put on a show in Wednesday’s first game. The 6-foot-8 Biliew showed his offensive versatility with 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting in the first half as Waukee (23-2) built a 30-12 halftime lead.
The second quarter was the decisive period, as the Warriors outscored the defending champion Little Cyclones 22-6.
Biliew finished with 24 points and six rebounds. Jack Wynter had 12 points for Ames (17-8).
North Linn's Breckyn Betenbender (14) sinks the final three-pointer of the game with pressure from Remsen St. Mary's Jaxon Bunkers (40) and pushes the Lynx over the Hawks 52-50 in the final minute of the game during the boys’ state basketball class 1A semifinals in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
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