Tourney Trail Begins Thursday in Rippey

HAWKS OPEN AGAINST SWG IN QUARTERFINALS

So far, the ride has been pretty sweet for the East Greene Hawk cagers. Fresh off a runner-up finish in its inaugural year in the Rolling Hills Conference, EG heads into post-season tournament action on Thursday with a 17-4 record.

The Hawks earned the No. 3 seed among nine teams assigned to District 12 and will get the home court advantage in a quarterfinal round tilt against Southeast Webster-Grand, a team EG beat 78-23 in the second game of the season back in early December.

District 12 action got underway Monday night with Madrid (5-17) beating Paton-Churdan, 52-22, in the opening round, or “play-in” game matching up the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in District 12. Madrid now moves on to face top-seeded Colo-Nesco (18-2) on Thursday in Colo. Other quarterfinal matchups in District 12 are Van Meter at Ankeny Christian Academy, the No. 2 seed, and Coon Rapids-Bayard at Glidden-Ralston.

Thursday’s quarterfinal round winners face off in the semifinals next Tuesday, Feb. 22 at sites yet to be determined.

East Greene heads into district action with its offense working in high gear. The Hawks bounced back nicely from a disappointing loss to Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton, 57-46, in Elk Horn on Feb. 4 with big wins in Rippey over Iowa Christian Academy, 70-51, on Tuesday, Feb. 8, and non-conference foe Madrid, 73-60, on Friday, Feb. 11. The Hawks have scored 70 or more points in three of their last four games.

Nic Nicolaisen, 6-5 senior center, has been on fire lately, averaging 19.8 points and 10 rebounds in the last four games. EG has a solid arsenal of quality guards who are good shooters, ball handlers and defenders. The Hawks have a deep roster and regularly play as many as 8 players throughout a game.

The runner-up league finish and 17 total wins is the best showing for East Greene in boys basketball since the early 1980s when the Hawks were a state power—winning the Central Valley Conference three years in a row and advancing to the state tournament in 1982. The following year, EG was ranked as high as No. 2 in the state and was beaten by Glidden-Ralston, also highly ranked and a Central Valley rival, in the sectional finals. GR was beaten in districts that year, but came back in 1984 and advanced to state.

EYE ON GJ SAYS: East Greene will certainly be force to be reckoned with in District 12, but the competition is fierce. EG is a heavy favorite against Southeast Webster-Grand (3-19), a team that finished last in the Twin Lakes Conference at 0-10. But it should be noted that SWG’s 5 league opponents are all 2A teams: Prairie Valley (Gowrie), South Central Calhoun (Rockwell City), East Sac (Lake View) and Manson-Northwest Webster. However, two of SWG’s wins game against Twin River Valley (Bode), a team that went 1-22. And the team that TRV beat, North Sentral Kossuth (Swea City), got the measure of them in a rematch on Monday in an 8-9 seed district matchup in northern Iowa, and that was just North Kossuth’s second win of the year.

However, just past the SWG game looms a major challenge: Colo-Nesco, the co-champion of the highly competitive Iowa Star-South conference and the No. 9-ranked team in the state. Colo-Nesco tied with North Tama (Traer) for the league crown and North Tama is also ranked this week in 1A by Associated Press, getting the No. 10 spot. The Iowa Star has 12 teams—all in 1A—divided into two divisions—north and south. Northeast Hamilton (Blairsburg) won the IS-North crown with a 14-2 mark, the same league mark for both CN and North Tama, which finished just ahead of Don Bosco (Gilbertville) at 12-3. Throughout the season, each of these four teams—NEH, CN, North Tama and Don Bosco—have been ranked in the Associated Press at one time or another this season.

The opposite side of the bracket in District 12 is wide open. Quarterfinal games on Thursday have Van Meter at Ankeny Christian Academy and Coon Rapids-Bayard at Glidden-Ralston. Interestingly, Ankeny Christian and CRB were two of the eight teams that made up the 1A state tourney field last year. Teams are grouped geographically—and then seeded by their records in the fifth through 15th games (11 total)—so it was by fate and geography these two ended up on the same side of the same district when last year they were in completely different substates.

Ankeny Christian, last year’s Rolling Hills champion, finished fourth in the league this year behind EEHK, EG and Orient-Macksburg with a 12-6 mark. The Eagles (14-8) face a team in Van Meter (4-17) that finished in a tie for seventh (3-13) with Madrid in the West Central Conference. ACA is coming off a near upset of West Central champion Des Moines Christian—an 88-85 win for the Lions in Ankeny in Friday night, so look for ACA to get by Van Meter and move on to the semifinal round.

The GR-CRB matchup looks to be one of the more interesting games. GR got the No. 4 seed—and home court advantage—for an early season match up of these longtime rivals and neighboring school districts. CRB (13-6) won a close game over the Wildcats (10-10) in the season opener, 52-48, in Coon Rapids. CRB is on a five-game winning streak, including two big wins over Woodward-Granger, a non-conference victory against Boyer Valley, and a big triumph against Guthrie Center, 51-45, that vaulted the Crusaders into a third place in the tough 1A-2A West Central Conference. CRB is tournament tested team with appearances at state in 2010, but GR will be about to avenge the four-point loss from December and to move on to possibly face a team (Ankeny Christian) that it thumped 70-41 in the regular season.

Since it has the highest seed of the four teams in the lower half of the bracket, Ankeny Christian is guaranteed the home court advantage against either CRB or GR. The most likely scenario is ACA hosting CRB in the semis on Monday, Feb. 22, with CRB moving on to the championship game against EG or CN. The final is slated for Friday, Feb. 25, at the Roland-Story gym in Story City which is midway between Colo and the teams on the other side of the bracket. Should EG prevail look for that venue to be changed to a spot midway between Grand Junction and Ankeny (Ogden, Boone or Perry) or between GJ and Carroll County (Jefferson if GR advances to the final; Guthrie Center if CRB makes the title game). Both Ogden and Jefferson-Scranton boys and girls teams have been eliminated so both gyms (and school officials) will be available to host a tournament final.

UPDATE ON GIRLS TOURNEY: Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton is the only Rolling Hills girls team still on the tourney trail after the first two rounds. EHKE beat league foe CAM (Anita) last night in Anita, 44-42, to advance to the semifinal round against Sidney at Red Oak.

Coon Rapids-Bayard, the team that sidelined East Greene in first-round game last Thursday, upset No. 15 Adair-Casey in Adair on Saturday night, 43-32, to advance to the quarterfinals against Guthrie Center in Adair last night. CRB prevailed again, 45-39, having beaten Guthrie twice during the regular season. The Crusaders (14-9) move on to face top-ranked Martensdale-St. Mary’s in a semifinal game on Friday at the new West Central Valley High School gym in Stuart. Game time is 7 p.m.

Martensdale-St. Mary’s (21-2) advanced with a 79-28 drubbing of Ankeny Christian, the only other Rolling Hills team to make it to the quarterfinal round. Ankeny Christian bows out with its best record in its short school history, 14-10.

The winners from the semifinal games at Red Oak and Stuart meeting in the regional final at Atlantic on Monday.

Here is a look at how the Rolling Hills played out at the end of the season:

ROLLING HILLS CONFERENCE 2011 FINAL STANDINGS

Boys Basketball
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 17-1
East Greene 15-3
Orient-Macksburg 14-4
Ankeny Christian 12-6
Glidden-Ralston 10-8
CAM 8-10
Iowa Christian 5-13
Walnut 4-14
Adair-Casey 4-14
Paton-Churdan 1-17

Girls Basketball
Adair-Casey 16-2
CAM 15-3
Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 15-3
Iowa Christian 13-5
Ankeny Christian 10-8
Orient-Macksburg 8-10
East Greene 5-13
Glidden-Ralston 4-14
Walnut 4-14
Paton-Churdan 0-18