For the first time since the year 2000, the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear girls’ basketball team is headed to the Class 1A state basketball tournament.
The black-and-gold, ranked 15th in the final rankings, out-scored No. 5 Kingsley-Pierson 15-9 in overtime to hand last year’s state semifinalist a 73-67 season-ending loss.

The Bishop Garrigan and North Union girls basketball teams have learned their first-round opponents and the times of their games at the Girls State Tournament next week. Garrigan will play top-seeded Springville at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, in the Class 1A tournament. North Union will play the game immediately prior to that, at 11:45 a.m. against Panorama. Scroll through the attached brackets to find all of the Girls State Basketball Tournament pairings.
 

Despite a gallant effort, the third time was not the charm for the Algona Bulldog girls’ basketball team as the red-and-black dropped a hard-fought 54-51 contest to the Clear Lake Lions in the Class 3A regional final played at Garner on Saturday, Feb. 17.
It was the third close battle of the year between the two North Central Conference squads as the Lions won back on Dec. 8 at Clear Lake in overtime 44-40 and topped the Bulldogs 47-42 at Algona on Jan. 23.

Carson Devine of Algona finished 1-2 at the Class 2A state wrestling tournament last weekend as the Bulldog junior ended his season with an overall mark of 22-9.
Carson started his tournament off right on Thursday as he won 3-1 decision over Knoxville’s Colby Meyer. He registered a takedown 25 seconds into the match and rode Meyer out the rest of the period.

All year long, Carson Devine has battled some back issues and then got the flu for a week and missed the North Central Conference wrestling tournament.
But the Algona junior put all that in the past by winning a pair of matches to take the district title at 170 pounds and advance to the Class 2A state wrestling tournament this week in Des Moines.

In a league that featured four rated teams all year long, the North Union Warrior girls’ basketball clinched first place and a conference championship with a 72-25 Top of Iowa Conference victory over the Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Cardinals in a game played at Armstrong on Friday, Feb. 2.

A big second quarter which Algona out-scored Iowa Falls-Alden 22-6, proved to be the difference as the red-and-black defeated the Cadets 58-37 in a North Central Conference girls’ basketball contest played in Algona on Friday, Feb. 2.
 
For more on this story, please see the Feb. 8 issue of Kossuth County Advance.

After scoring just 37 points in the first 24 minutes of the game, the ninth-ranked (Class 2A) North Union Warrior girls’ basketball team erupted for 33 points in the fourth quarter and 18 more in overtime to rally for an 88-79 win over the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bears.

Rebounding from a lop-sided loss at Garner at Tuesday, the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear boys’ basketball squad used some hot shooting in both the first and third quarters in an 83-40 Top of Iowa Conference win over the North Union Warriors.

Jake Anderson finished in fourth place at heavyweight to highlight the performances of the North Union Warriors wrestling squad at the Top of Iowa Conference meet wrestled at Forest City on Saturday, Jan. 27.
Two teammates placed fifth while fourth other Warrior wrestlers ended up sixth place as the green-black-and-silver finished in 13th place in the 16-team field with 61 team points.

Algona only had one wrestler make the finals in the 2018 North Central Conference wrestling meet but senior Calvin Kruse made sure the red-and-black came home with a title as he prevailed in the 182-pound class.
The Bulldogs finished in sixth place as a team with 112 team points in the league meet held at Humboldt on Saturday, Jan. 20 as two wrestlers ended up in third place, a trio of grapplers took fourth, one Algona wrestler was fifth and four more placed sixth.

For the second straight night, some uncanny shooting from long distance by Aliyah Buscher helped the Algona Bulldog girls’ basketball team to a 62-45 North Central Conference victory over the Webster City Lynx in a game played at Algona on Friday, Jan. 19.
The Bulldog sophomore poured in a game-high 22 points, including making 5-of-6 behind the three-point arc just 24 hours after going 7-of-10 from deep the previous evening against Pocahontas Area.

The biggest strength of the Algona boys’ basketball program under the guidance of Head Coach Noel McLaughlin is the squads’ strong defensive play.
On Friday, Jan. 19 at home, that defense was solid as ever as the red-and-black avenged a loss earlier in the season at Webster City by defeating the Lynx by the score of 44-31, limiting the visitors to just 19 points the final three quarters.

Senior Mason Studer placed third at 145 pounds to highlight the performances of the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines wrestling squad at the Twin Lakes Conference meet held on Saturday, Jan. 13 at Gowrie.
The purple-and-gold finished in ninth place as a team with 62 team points as one wrestler ended up in fourth place, two were fifth and two more finished in sixth place in the meet.

Newell-Fonda erupted for 27 points in the final eight minutes to rally for a 69-50 Twin Lakes Conference boys’ basketball victory over the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines in a league contest played at West Bend on Friday, Jan. 12.