Sioux Center ends Benton’s emotional run, claims the 3A girls’ state basketball championship

DES MOINES — Passing lanes were clogged. Driving lanes were full of traffic.

It wasn’t a good combination. And it just wasn’t Benton Community’s night.

Fourth-ranked Sioux Center trapped, harassed and “out-lengthed” No. 6 Benton, and has a Class 3A girls’ state basketball championship to show for it, the reward of a 62-47 conquest Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

“I don’t think we ever got comfortable,” Benton Coach Jeff Zittergruen said. “(Sioux Center) is long. They do a really good job of what they do. That’s a really good basketball team.”

A championship team, at last. The Warriors were 3A runners-up in 2017 and 2018, then took the final step Friday to finish a 21-5 campaign.

“Even though we were a 6-seed, we always believed,” all-tournament captain Willow Bleeker said. “We play really good competition, and a lot of close games. This week, we were able to show what we can do, and it’s just awesome.”

An indicator that it wasn’t Benton night came immediately, when the Bobcats (23-4) were called for three fouls in the first 90 seconds.

The Bobcats struck first, on Zoey Junge’s 3-pointer, but Sioux Center scored the next eight points and led the rest of the way.

Jenna Twedt scored 11 of the Bobcats’ first 14 points, including a 3-pointer that made it 17-14. But the Warriors surged again and led 24-16 at halftime.

Benton never got closer than that eight-point margin in the second half.

“That zone of theirs makes things hard,” Twedt said. “They used their length and their height to their advantage, and they stayed disciplined with it.”

The zone trapped at the perimeter, seemingly squeezing the Bobcats further from the basket constantly.

Meanwhile, foul trouble ate at the Bobcats. They were whistled for 23 — and, true, a good number of them came in the final minutes, as they efforted a furious rally. But most came in the flow of the game.

Emma Townsley, who was called for two personals before the game broke a sweat, fouled out. So did Piper Nelson.

Tatum Schmalbeck (16 points) joined Bleeker on the all-tournament team. So did Twedt (21 points, five assists) and Benton’s McKenna Kramer (15 points), along with Alyssa Griffith of Vinton-Shellsburg and Hailey Miller of Solon.

Kramer was a highlight for the Bobcats, nailing 4 of 8 shots from deep, a couple from extremely deep.

“They kept coming out further, then even further, and I was going to keep shooting,” Kramer said.

With Benton, Solon and Vinton-Shellsburg, the Wamac Conference had three-fourths of the 3A semifinal roster. But the outlier of the group, Sioux Center won it all.

As for the Bobcats, who played nobly in the face of adversity (last week’s leukemia diagnosis of teammate Tatum Schroeder):

“It’s going to sting tonight, and for a while,” Zittergruen said. “But after that sting goes away, we’ve got a lot to be proud of.”

“Super proud,” Twedt said.

Sioux Center 62, Benton Community 47

Class 3A State Championship, at Des Moines

SIOUX CENTER (62): Tatum Schmalbeck 5-10 3-3 16, Willow Bleeker 4-9 9-9 17, Reagan Jansen 0-0 0-0 0, Makenna Walhof 4-7 1-3 9, Cori Harald 2-5 0-2 5, Taya Gesink 0-0 0-0 0, Kennedy Kooi 1-2 0-0 2, Margo Schuiteman 1-4 4-6 6, Maci Schmalbeck 0-0 0-0 0, Laney Franken 0-0 0-0 0, Makailyn VanderWaal 2-5 3-7 7. Totals 19-42 20-30 62.

BENTON COMMUNITY (47): Emma Townsley 1-3 0-0 2, Piper Nelson 1-2 1-3 3, McKenna Kramer 5-9 1-2 15, Jenna Twedt 8-23 2-3 21, Zoey Junge 1-5 0-0 3, Jaida Lyons 0-0 0-0 0, Laura Junge 0-0 0-0 0, Addison Phillips 0-1 0-2 0, Aubrey Kelly 1-3 0-0 3, Hannah Greiner 0-1 0-0 0, Ana Glawe 0-0 0-0 0, Jessa DeMoss 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-47 4-10 47.

Sioux Center 12 12 15 23 — 62

Benton Community 6 10 11 20 — 47

3-point goals: Sioux Center 4-12 (T. Schmalbeck 3-5, Bleeker 0-2, Harald 1-3, Kooi 0-1, Schuiteman 0-1), Benton 9-27 (Townsley 0-1, Kramer 4-8, Twedt 3-11, Junge 1-4, Kelly 1-3). Team fouls: Sioux Center 11, Benton 23. Fouled out: Townsley, Nelson. Rebounds: Sioux Center 34 (VanderWaal 8), Benton 28 (Townsley 8). Assists: Sioux Center 8 (Bleeker 3), Benton 10 (Twedt 5). Steals: Sioux Center 8 (four with 2), Benton 3 (Kramer 2). Turnovers: Sioux Center 9, Benton 11.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com