Boys' state basketball tournament: Tuesday's roundup

DES MOINES — They seed teams at the boys' state basketball tournament on win-loss record only. That's why you had two-time defending state champion Dubuque Wahlert technically an underdog Tuesday afternoon in its Class 3A quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena.

Ask MOC-Floyd Valley Coach Loren De Jong what he thought of that.

'We thought we had an opportunity to win a state championship,' De Jong said, after Wahlert escaped his team, 79-74. 'Wahlert is afforded the opportunity to play bigger schools in the regular season. They're two-time defending state champions. But they're a '5' seed. I don't understand that. They should be No. 1. At least that's what every coach would say.'

Harlan Coach Mitch Osborn, a three-time state champion, chimed in on Twitter.

@iowaprepsports @DemonHoops agree with Loren. I said in 2014 they r a 4A school that plays 3A when tourney starts.

— Mitch Osborn (@OsbornMitch)

No. 1 seeds in Class 1A (Danville) and 2A (Dike-New Hartford) both lost their quarterfinal games Monday.

Wahlert (20-5) would say it's fairly fortunate to be moving on to Thursday evening's semifinals against Chariton. No, the Golden Eagles never trailed, but they saw an 18-point second-half lead melt to four in the final two minutes.

That was thanks to MOC-FV's Levi Jansen, who scored 42 points. He and teammate Christian Korver accounted for 63 of their team's 74 points.

'Hats off to MOC-Floyd Valley,' said Wahlert Coach Tom English. 'The second half they played was tremendous. We couldn't stop Korver or Jansen at times, no matter what we threw at them.'

Point guard David Wedewer led Wahlert with 20 points, making eight of nine free throws, most of them down the stretch. Iowa Hawkeye recruit Cordell Pemsl added 19 points and 10 rebounds.

'We knew that if we stayed patient on offense, we'd be fine,' Pemsl said.

Starting forward Sage Maiers injured an ankle in the third quarter for Wahlert, and English didn't know his availability for the semifinals. Starting forward Riley Till fouled out in the fourth quarter, but English lauded the bench play of Josh Schmitt (10 points) and David Iwowari (6), in particular.

WESTERN CHRISTIAN 56, CARROLL KUEMPER 42 — Wolfpack Coach Jim Eekhoff will retire from an incredible career after this tournament, and this win guaranteed he'll have two more games.

The tall timber (when doesn't Western Christian have tall timber?) of Josh VanLingen and Dustin Marra each recorded double-doubles as Western (23-2) advanced to Thursday afternoon's semifinals opposite Anamosa. The 6-foot-7 VanLingen finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds, the 6-6 Marra had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Jesse Jansma, a mere 6-3, led Western Christian with 14 points. Matt Dentlinger had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Kuemper (18-7).

Eekhoff is 679-143 in 34 seasons at Western Christian. He has won six state championships.

PELLA 94, PERRY 54 — Pella (23-1) set up a rematch with Cedar Rapids Xavier by dominating this Class 3A quarterfinal Tuesday night. The Dutch lost to Xavier in last year's quarterfinals.

Pella shot 59 percent from the field and had four players score in double figures: Donovan Holterhaus (21 points), Ryan Van Wyk (17), Payson Vande Lune (16) and Will Warner (10). The Dutch scored a whopping 27 points in the first quarter and followed with equally impressive quarters of 24 and 25 points.

Shammond Ivory led Perry (15-10) with 18 points.

AREA GAMES

Anamosa 74, Des Moines Christian 60

Chariton 64, Solon 50

Cedar Rapids Xavier 58, Spirit Lake 47

Updated Brackets