Hawk Win Kicks Off Big Hoops Week

BEAT WALNUT 66-50, GIRLS FALL 32-29

A big week of basketball got underway for East Greene last night in Rippey as the Hawks and Hawkettes split a doubleheader with Walnut. The Hawks rolled to a 66-50 win while the Hawkettes fell 32-29.

EG closes out the conference season tonight in Rippey against Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton. EEHK girls clinched a tie for the Rolling Hills Conference title last week with a win over Walnut, upping their league mark to 16-1, just ahead of Adair-Casey, 15-2. A win over EG will give the Spartan girls the title outright. The Spartan boys locked up their second consecutive conference crown on Friday with a win over Walnut while second-place CAM (Anita) was beaten by Ankeny Christian Academy. EEHK moved to 16-1 in the conference while CAM dropped to 14-3. So even if EG beats the Spartans tonight, EEHK will still win the league title.

The Hawkettes begin regional play on Thursday with an opening round game at Southeast Webster-Grand (Burnside). The Eagles (5-15) beat EG in the season opener for both teams, 32-26, in Burnside. The Hawks close out the regular season with a non-conference game at Audubon (5-14) on Friday. The Wheelers, a Western Iowa Conference team, could meet up with East Greene again later this month as both teams are in the same district tournament. The Hawks got the No. 2 seed and will open at home on Feb. 16 in the quarterfinals against the winner of a game Feb. 13 between Paton-Churdan and Madrid. The winners on Feb. 16 meet in the semifinal round on Feb. 21.

THE BIG ‘O’ DUMPS IN 33 POINTS

Reed Ostrander paced the Hawks against Walnut with 33 points while Wyatt Beaman added 14 points with most of the bulk of that coming on four 3-pointers. Ostrander dumped in 14 field goals and was a perfect 5-5 at the free throw line.

The first period ended with the Hawks up 12-10, but three consecutive 3-pointers—two from Beaman and one from Tory Beger—sparked a rally in the second quarter that put EG in front 25-16 and they went into the halftime break with a 29-20 advantage.

Beaman and Beger found the range again as the second half got underway. Their consecutive 3-pointers put the Hawks in front, 35-20, a lead they did not relinquish the rest of the game. EG was up by 20 points at the 5-minute mark, 42-22, and went on to finish out the quarter with a comfortable 50-32 lead.

The Warriors did whittle the margin down to 61-47 in the late stages of the game, but a 5-0 run put EG up 66-47 before Walnut scored on a three-pointer with 10 seconds left in the game. EG ran out the clock to take a key 66-50 win over a team it struggled with last month in Walnut, escaping with a four-point win.

The win gave EG sole possession of fifth place in the Rolling Hills Conference at 9-8 heading into tonight’s game with Exira/Elk Horn Kimballton. Walnut drops to 4-13 in the conference and 8-13 overall. The win guarantees EG an upper-division finish in the conference for the second year in a row. The Hawks were considered to be in a rebuilding phase after finishing second in the league to EEHK last year at 15-3. The Spartans went on to win the district and substate, qualifying for the Class 1A state tournament along with Guthrie Center, a West Central Conference team, which won the consolation game to finish third in the state.

Rolling Hills Conference Boys Basketball

Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton 16-1

CAM (Anita) 14-3

Ankeny Christian 13-4

Adair-Casey 10-7

East Greene 9-8

Iowa Christian 7-10

Orient-Macksburg 7-10

Glidden-Ralston 5-12

Walnut 4-13

Paton-Churdan 0-17

GIRLS CAN’T HOLD EARLY LEAD

The Hawkettes looked like a veteran team as took an early 3-2 lead and then extended that to 7-2 behind two free throws and a field goal. EG’s full court press was working well as they held the Warriors scoreless after their opening basket, closing out the quarter with a 10-2 advantage.

Walnut started to get untracked in the second period, outscoring the Hawkettes 11-7 and cutting the EG lead to 17-12 at halftime. Both teams battled evenly the rest of the way but fouls began to add up for the Hawkettes’ Jolee Wessling and Emily Jacobsen and Walnut’s outside shooter Haley Blum. EG had to rely more on an inexperienced bench, as starter Brittany Gunn was already sidelined with an injury sustained from a horse riding accident.

The momentum was in Walnut’s favor as they hit a long outside shot to cut the EG lead to 24-23 as the third quarter ended. Neither team could generate much output offensively, but Walnut forged a 25-all tie with 5:31 left on the clock. Center Ashli Walker drew a foul and connected on two free throws to give the Warriors their first lead since early in the game, 27-25, at the 3:46 mark. Walnut outscored the Hawkettes 5-4 in the closing stages of the game to win 32-29, improving their league mark to 7-10 and 10-11 overall.

Rolling Hills Conference Girls Basketball

Elk Horn-Kimballton/Exira 16-1

Adair-Casey 15-2

Iowa Christian 13-4

Orient-Macksburg 10-7

CAM (Anita) 9-8

Walnut 7-10

Ankeny Christian 6-11

Glidden-Ralston 4-13

Paton-Churdan 3-14

East Greene 2-15

FAREWELL TOUR FOR WALNUT SPORTS

Beyond the four quarters of play, it was an evening of memorable moments. Each team was missing a starter. Walnut’s Josie Anzalone suffered injuries in a serious car accident north of Walnut on Jan. 19, which forced the postponement of the Walnut-EG game, Jan. 20. EG’s Brittany Gunn, an experienced equestrian rider, on Jan. 28 took a nasty spill off a horse, landing on her head and suffering a concussion. She has since been held out of play while under doctor’s supervision, so the 10-person Hawkette squad was reduced to 9. Gunn is a starting guard on her squad, as is Anzalone for Walnut.

The East Greene girls organized several fund-raising activities for the evening with the proceeds going to help defray the medical costs incurred by the Anzalone family. Josie now travels with the team and is presently using a wheel chair to get around, but reports are she is recuperating well.

The EG girls held a raffle for baked good items in the lobby and sold tickets for a chuck the duck contest at halftime of the boys’ game and a half-court shot contest as halftime of the girls’ game. Their efforts raised $250 and a check was presented to Josie. All of the girls from both teams gathered together for a group photo with Josie after the boys’ game had ended.

Walnut Warrior Ty Johnk suffered a leg injury in the late stages of the boys game and had to be helped off the court. He is one of four Walnut seniors on a team of just nine players. When Johnk and his classmates graduate in May that will leave just a junior, a sophomore, and three freshmen to form a nucleus for next year’s team along with any 8^th grade boys from a class of just a dozen students this year.

Due to such low numbers, the Walnut school board voted in December to shift its current academic sharing and partial sports sharing (football this past season) from Atlantic, predominantly a 3A school, to a complete sports sharing and increased academic sharing (four of seven periods a day) with AHST (Avoca), a community school district formed several years ago between the former Avo-Ha of Avoca school district and the Shelby-Tennant school district. AHST participates in Class 1A. The AHST high school and sports facilities are in Avoca, just six miles to the west of Walnut in far northeastern Pottawattamie County.

East Greene is in a similar situation, spurring the district to whole grade share with Jefferson-Scranton next year, where the EG junior and senior high school students will attend all classes in Jefferson, while the 5^th and 6^th graders from both districts attend classes in the present high school building in Grand Junction. The plan initially was for East Greene to offer its own sports program for two years for both high school and junior high students, but that plan looks to be modified to high school sports at EG for one year and for junior high (seventh and eighth grades) to become part of a combined EG/JS junior high sports program next school year. However, the determination of the junior high sports has yet to be made by the EG school board.

So it was a bit of history in the making, as the Walnut teams close out their last year of Walnut Warrior heritage. Next year they will become a new Walnut/AHST team and compete in AHST’s place in the Western Iowa Conference. And next year will most likely bring down the curtain on a long and storied sports tradition that encompasses Dana, Rippey, Grand Junction and East Greene.