Jenna Twedt climbs to the top of Benton’s scoring leaderboard

Girls’ basketball notes: Despite a nagging cough, she poured in 23 points in the Bobcats’ win over Center Point-Urbana on Tuesday, upping her career total to 1,554

Jeff Linder

Jan. 19, 2023 11:12 am, Updated: Jan. 19, 2023 11:54 am

Benton Community’s Jenna Twedt drives to the basket during last year’s state tournament. On Tuesday, Twedt became Benton’s all-time leading scorer. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Jenna Twedt’s night of coronation was a night of discomfort.

“I woke up kind of sick (Tuesday) morning,” she said. “During the game, I was coughing so hard I started gagging.”

And yet, the senior guard scored 23 points to lead Benton Community to an important 46-38 Wamac Conference West Division girls’ basketball victory, keeping the Bobcats in a tie for first place with Clear Creek Amana.

Twedt moved to the top of Benton’s career leaderboard, with 1,554 points, surpassing 2013 graduate Madison Weekly, who compiled 1,552 points.

“(Weekly) was in high school the same time as my brother, so I didn’t get to many of the girls games then,” Twedt said. “But she was a very strong player, very good.”

So is Twedt. A Class 4A second-team all-stater last year after leading the Bobcats to the state tournament, she is averaging 18.7 points and 3.4 assists per game.

Benton is 12-2 and ranked No. 4 in Class 3A.

“Jenna has done a really good job in improving her consistency as an outside shooter,” Bobcats Coach Jeff Zittergruen said. “She’s better at staying balanced when she shoots. She gets to the free-throw line, a lot and has improved her percentage there.”

Twedt shoots 88.2 percent from the line.

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She called Tuesday’s milestone “a big accomplishment. I’ve put a lot of work in, a lot of late nights and early mornings in which I’d take extra clothes to school.”

The Bobcats still have four difficult regular-season games left, including a Jan. 27 road showdown with CCA.

“We definitely have a tough schedule. But if we keep working, we’re going to make it a really good season,” Twedt said.

Also Tuesday, Iowa City Liberty’s Jasmine Barney reached the 1,000-point mark for her career.

Barney spent her first two seasons at Cedar Falls before moving to North Liberty before her junior year.

Cascade-Regina highlights Shootout

This is the first year that the River Valley Conference has gone to a division-only format in keeping standings. As a result, not all teams play each other in cross-divisional play.

Instead, the league has instituted the River Valley Shootout, an eight-game affair Saturday at Cornell College, which consists of eight games.

The best matchup is the finale, scheduled for 8 p.m., between North Division leader Cascade and South Division leader Iowa City Regina, who do not meet otherwise in the regular season.

Class 2A fifth-ranked Cascade is 12-1; No. 6 Regina is 13-2. Both teams are unbeaten in their respective divisions.

In other highlights of the day, Mid-Prairie (8-5) faces Bellevue (8-5) at 5 p.m., and West Liberty (8-4) meets Monticello (11-3) at 6:30.

Wilton and Maquoketa kick off the event at 9:30 a.m.

A gesture of generosity

The three officials for Tuesday’s girls/boys doubleheader between Solon and Mount Vernon (Travis Fuller, Mike Bonwell and Willie Guy) donated their checks — about $400 among them — to the Brand family of Mount Vernon.

Summer Brand, a student at Central College and the daughter of principal Steve Brand and teacher/coach Robin Brand, is going through a second round of treatment for lymphoma at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.