High School Basketball

The Call It Both Ways podcast is back with weekly high school basketball topics, including the Mount Vernon girls' rise from a one-win season to a No. 1 ranking, schedule changes, participation numbers, Eric Dettbarn's 500-win career and more.

Girls’ basketball notes: Three years after a 1-20 campaign, Mount Vernon has climbed to a No. 1 ranking in Class 3A, thanks to a come-from-behind win over archrival Solon on Tuesday.

Eric Dettbarn remembers eating supper one night in his small Monona home with his wife and legendary college basketball coach Roy Williams. It’s just one memory in a 38-year boys’ basketball coaching career at MFL MarMac that included picking up his 500th-career victory Tuesday night when his team beat Postville.

Girls’ basketball Super Ten: Snow, wind and cold limit the schedule. Cedar Rapids Prairie climbs to No. 4.

Dubuque Senior’s student section greeted Cedar Rapids Kennedy guard Trey McKowen with chants of “Slim Shady” because of McKowen’s similar blond hair style to rapper Eminem’s alter ego. But the Kennedy Slim Shady scored a game-high 17 points as his Class 4A top-ranked team beat No. 3 Senior, 57-34.

Senior guard Joe Bean scored one point in Class 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s win last weekend over fifth-ranked Waukee. Thursday night, Bean had a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds as Kennedy knocked off 10th-ranked Linn-Mar, 79-53.

Lena Evans drilled a tie-breaking 3-pointer — her fifth deep shot of the game — with 9 seconds left to lift Class 4A second-ranked Clear Creek Amana past 3A No. 2 Mount Vernon, 50-47, in a Wamac Conference cross-divisional girls’ basketball dandy Thursday night at Mount Vernon High School.

The Call It Both Ways podcast is snowed in for the time being, but has a few topics to discuss despite the lack of games. Those include a look at the Cedar Rapids Washington girls, Lansing Kee boys and other teams on the rise, takeaways from last Saturday’s MVC-CIML Shootout and revisiting conference realignment possibilities.

Lansing Kee has as strong a baseball tradition as any school in the state, but its basketball team has the communities of Lansing and New Albin buzzing this winter. The Hawks are 12-0 and ranked for the first time in school history, eighth in Class 1A.

Led by seniors but driven by a stacked sophomore class, the Class 4A 11th-ranked Maquoketa girls’ basketball team is in pursuit of its first conference championship in 20 years.

Girls’ basketball Super Ten: The first one after the holidays has the same top six as previously, led by Clear Creek Amana.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association released its second boys’ basketball rankings of the season Monday afternoon. There is a new No. 1 team in Class 3A in Clear Lake. The other top-ranked teams remain the same in Cedar Rapids Kennedy (4A), West Lyon (2A) and North Linn (1A).