Sports

Jackson Louscher made back-to-back 3-pointers to help South O’Brien pull away with a 20-8 spurt in the fourth quarter as the Wolverines ended Storm Lake St. Mary’s season with a 55-39 win in a Class 1A district quarterfinal game last Thursday at Paullina.

Both teams had trouble scoring points in the first quarter. South O’Brien led 2-0 through the first 4 minutes of the game before taking an 8-4 lead into the second.

The Wolverines outscored the Panthers 18-14 in the second stanza to grab a 26-18 lead at halftime.

Storm Lake pickleball play moves to Monday and Wednesday evenings at the Storm Lake East School Gym from 5-8 p.m.

Pickleball, a fun, fast-moving sport with a funny name, has a growing following in Storm Lake.

Local Storm Lake area pickleball players include Ron Netten, Diane Fikkert, Mike Osegaro, Julie Osegaro, Rick Anderson, Janet Anderson, Tom McClinton, Ed Rahe, Kim Mittelstadt and Dan Anderson.

The sport was invented almost 50 years ago near Seattle, Wash. It’s a combination of tennis, badminton and ping-pong played with a whiffle ball on a short court.

Jaxon Franken scored 17 points and Jake Tokheim added 11, but it wasn’t enough as Woodbury Central defeated Ridge View 55-36 in a Class 1A district tournament game last Thursday at Kingsley.

“We didn’t get off to a good start, but after the first quarter we did a better job scoring,” Ridge View coach Mike Smith said. “Give Woodbury Central credit. They took us out of our offense by hedging on ball screens and switching a lot on defense.

Jasmine Demers scored 15 points and Claudia Larsen added 12 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn’t enough for Buena Vista, which had its three-game winning streak snapped with an 83-62 loss at Luther to close out the regular season last Saturday.

The Norse led 21-14 after the first quarter and then made 5-of-9 3-point attempts in the second quarter while the Beavers came up empty on all five attempts from long range. Luther pulled away to a 50-26 lead at the break.

David Jeffries scored 21 points and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to help lead Buena Vista to a 71-70 win over Luther to wrap up the regular season last Saturday at Decorah.

Jeffries had the hot hand all game long for the Beavers, finishing 8-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point. Billy Sparks was feeling it from long range by hitting 4-of-8  3-pointers and finishing with 13 points. Canyon Hopkins chipped in with 10 points for the winners.

Mustangs’ pressure defense takes toll on Ar-We-Va

Newell-Fonda outscored Ar-We-Va 45-15 over the second and third quarters, and Olivia Larsen went over the 1,000-point mark for her career as No. 4 Newell-Fonda opened Class 1A regional tournament play with a 77-28 win over the Rockets on Tuesday at Newell.

Newell-Fonda, now 22-0, will play Glidden-Ralston   (14-8) in a regional semifinal game today at 7 p.m. in Newell.

Tornadoes beat Carroll

For the first time since 2010, Storm Lake has won a regional girls basketball tournament game.

The Tornadoes turned the trick by beating Carroll 56-53 in a turnover-marred game on Wednesday at Tornado Fieldhouse.

Storm Lake, now 7-15, will play Denison-Schleswig on Saturday in Denison.

Graettinger-Terril/Ruth-ven-Ayrshire outscored Storm Lake St. Mary’s 24-2 in the second quarter to pull away from a close game as the Titans went on to eliminate the Panthers 56-28 in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal game on Tuesday at St. Mary’s.

The Titans held an 8-4 lead after the first quarter as neither team scored a point for the first 4 minutes of the game.

The Titans, however, went on a 22-0 run to take a 30-4 lead before St. Mary’s scored. GTRA took a 32-6 lead into the halftime break.

GTRA extended its lead to 45-17 by the end of the third quarter.