Hawks Upend West Central Valley

EG AVENGES EARLIER LOSS, 53-43

East Greene turned the tables on West Central Valley Friday night in Rippey, topping the Wildcats 53-43 after having dropped a heartbreaker, 57-55, to WCV just before the holiday break back in December.

The win improved the Hawks’ season record to 7-9 and moved their West Central Conference mark to 6-9.

West Central Valley won the opener of the girl-boy doubleheader, 44-37, as the Wildcat girls moved their conference mark to 12-3, one game behind second-place Des Moines Christian. Panorama (15-0) is close to clinching the league championship after beating arch-rival Guthrie Center 51-42 in Panora on Friday.

EG dropped to 7-8 in the conference and 8-9 overall. With just three games remaining, the Hawkettes will need to win 2-of-3 to finish at .500 for the season and in the conference, and one of the three games is against Panorama, ranked 11th in Class 2A, in Panora on Friday. The Hawks and Hawkettes travel to Woodward-Granger tonight. The teams’ conference seasons conclude next Tuesday, Feb. 9, at home against Madrid. The Hawks host Adair-Casey in the season finale on Friday, Feb. 12, in a JV/varsity doubleheader.

After hosting Madrid on Tuesday, the Hawkettes will travel there two nights later for a rematch as the two teams are paired against each other in the opening round of the Class 1-A Regional tournament. EG beat Madrid on the road earlier this season 54-25.

HAWKS UPSET GUTHRIE CENTER

EG has battled all season to break out of the lower division of the West Central, but has found the sledding tough going as six of the 10 West Central Conference teams are in 2A. The Hawks did score a major upset over Guthrie Center on Friday, Jan. 22, with a big 62-46 win in Rippey. It was only the fourth conference loss all season for 2A Guthrie and two of those losses came at the hands of Des Moines Christian, the state’s top-ranked Class 2A team.

The Hawks opened a tight game up in the second quarter, taking a six-point lead at the half and extending that to a 44-36 advantage after three quarters. Guthrie pulled within five points with minutes left in the game, but EG took advantage when the Tiger’s 6-5 center Dustin Clark fouled out. Guthrie was forced to foul from there on, and EG took advantage, knocking down 14 of 18 free throws in the final quarter.

It was complete effort, as the defense held the Tigers to just 27% from the field and only 2-19 from behind the three-point line. EG out-rebounded Guthrie, 39 to 29.

Nic Nicolaisen, 6-5 center, had a big night for the Hawks, scoring 18 points and pulling down a big 18 rebounds.

CRB, PANORAMA TOP EG

The Hawks could not carry the momentum of their win over Guthrie Center to a tilt with Panorama, the league’s No. 2 team, the following night in Rippey, falling to the Panthers 56-38. The game had been postponed twice due to weather.

The Hawks were doomed by cold shooting and a tough Panorama defense, hitting just 12 of 43 two-point shots for 28% and turning the ball over 29 times. Against Guthrie, the Hawks had made 25 of 34 free throws (74%) but they were a cold 10-of-21 for 48% on Saturday. One bright spot was a 4-10 (40%) night behind the three-point arc.

Nicolaisen led the offense with 11 points. Reserve Schyler Bardole had a big game defensively as he lead the Hawks in rebounding with 9. Jessie Priest pulled down 8.

On Tuesday night (Jan. 25) on the road, Coon Rapids-Bayard got revenge for an two-point loss to the Hawks earlier in the season, 49-38. EG started out solid, posting a 16-12 first quarter lead and trailing by just two, 26-24, at the half. The Crusaders took charge in the second half, holding the Hawks to just 14 points.

EG was lead by Wes Onken with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Onken was 7-8 from the field, 2-2 from behind the arc, and 2-2 from the free throw line. However, the Crusaders successfully shut down the rest of Hawks, with just three others making it into the scoring book: Priest with 8, and Nicolaisen and Tom Beger with 6 each.

The loss to CRB was key as both teams were jockeying for post-season seedings in District 13. Heading into the game, EG was 4-6 in the 10 of 11 games used for seeding purposes (games 5-15 of the season) while CRB was 5-5. If EG had won this 11th--and final seeding game--the Hawks would have tied CRB at 5-6 and won the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed by virtue of winning both head-to-head contests against CRB, and by beating Southeast Webster-Grand in the first game of the season, as SWG played its 11th game two nights later, beating winless Southern Cal to also finish at 5-6. However, the Hawks lost to CRB, giving the Crusaders the No. 3 seed at 6-5 and dropping the Hawks to 4-7, which should give them the No. 5 seed. SWG finishes at the No. 4 spot at 5-6, and those two teams are most likely to be paired up in the opening round of district action with SWG getting the home court advantage as the higher seed.

Here are the seedings for teams in District 13:

5-15 Standings / Overall / 5-15 % / Head-to-Head Competition

1. RCL 7-4 11-5 0.636 3-0
2. GR* 6-5 8-9 0.545 5-1
3. CRB* 6-5 9-7 0.545 1-2
4. SWG 5-6 7-10 0.455 3-2
5. EG 4-7 7-10 0.363 2-2
6. AC 3-8 3-12 0.273 2-0
7. PC 2-8 2-12 0.200 0-4
8. SC 0-10 0-14 0.000 0-3

* GR holds tie-breaker for second place over CR. Overall standings are for games played through Saturday, Jan. 30, and reflect EG’s loss to RCL on Jan. 30.