By Greg Grabianowski

Sports Editor

FOREST CITY—Forest City scored the final five points of the game to rally for a 45-41 victory over the Algona Bulldogs in the opening round of the Class 3A girls’ regional basketball tournament.

GRAETTINGER—North Union scored just nine points in the second half in a 50-28 Class 1A district quarterfinal round loss on Monday, Feb. 14 to the North Iowa Bison.

The Warriors led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter before North Iowa took a narrow 20-19 advantage to the locker room at halftime. The Bison extended the lead to 32-23 at the conclusion of the third quarter of play.

GRAETTINGER—Bishop Garrigan hung tough early but a cold shooting evening for the floor hurt the squad in a 70-53 loss on Monday, Feb. 14 in a Class 1A district quarterfinal round contest against the Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire Titans.

The contest was deadlocked at 18-18 at the conclusion of the first period before the home team took a 35-28 advantage to the locker room at intermission. The Titans increased the lead to 58-42 at the end of the third quarter.

WEST BEND—West Bend-Mallard opened Class 1A district boys’ basketball play on Friday, Feb. 11 at home with a 63-53 victory over the Northwood-Kensett Vikings.

The purple-and-gold led almost the entire contest but couldn’t shake off the pesky Vikings. The Wolverines led 13-8, 25-14 and 42-29 at the three quarter breaks.

WEST BEND—A pair of youngsters had big nights to help lead the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines to a 64-60 overtime victory over the Mason City Newman Knights on Thursday, Feb. 10 in the opening round of the Class 1A regional girls’ basketball tournament.

ARMSTRONG—North Union wrapped up sole possession of second place in the Top of Iowa Conference girls’ basketball standings on Tuesday, Feb. 8 with a 70-12 drubbing of the Lake Mills Bulldogs.

The green-black-and-silver finished the 2021-2022 regular season with an overall record of 16-5 and ended up in second place in the league standings with a mark of 13-3.

EMMETSBURG—Freshman Landon Price of North Union placed first at 113 pounds to highlight the performances of the North Union Warriors and West Bend-Mallard Wolverines wrestling squads at the Class 1A district tournament.

Price had a bye in the semifinals and wrestled only 31 seconds in the finals to advance to state with a fall over Lincoln Wilcoxon of Emmetsburg.

WEBSTER CITY—Freshmen Isaac Wilson and Tate Slagle earned a trip to Des Moines to wrestle in the Class 2A state wrestling tournament this week with a second place finish at the district meet on Saturday, Feb. 12.

Wilson opened the day with a 7-0 win over Garrett Tusler of Osage in the semifinals but lost a tough 1-0 decision to seventh-rated Jayson Stevens of Hampton-Dumont in the 106-pound finals.

ALGONA—Hampton-Dumont defeated the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear in a non-conference boys contest on Thursday, Feb. 10 by the score of 69-55. The Golden Bears ended the regular season with a mark of 6-15.

The contest was tight until the third quarter when the visitors increased a four-point halftime advantage into a 10-point lead and went onto the victory.

By Greg Grabianowski

Sports Editor

BOONE—Algona is headed west to Spencer to open Class 3A post-season basketball play as the sub-state pairings were released last week by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

ALGONA—The Algona Bulldogs put up a great battle but fell just short on Friday, Feb. 11 in a 54-46 North Central Conference boys’ basketball loss to the Clear Lake Lions.

Clear Lake led 20-15 after a high scoring first frame and took a 36-21 advantage to the locker room. The Bulldogs had a strong third stanza capped off by a buzzer-beating half-court heave by Garrett Goche to slice the lead to 41-38.

LAKE MILLS—Fourth-ranked Lake Mills started the game off on fire and never looked back in an 82-41 Class 1A district quarterfinal round victory on Monday, Feb. 14 over the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines.

The Bulldogs connected on 10 of 11 first quarter field goals and were successful on eight of 15 shots in the second frame to build commanding leads of 27-5 and 45-22 at the first two quarter breaks.

ARMSTRONG—Fourth-ranked Lake Mills completed a perfect 16-0 Top of Iowa Conference schedule on Tuesday, Feb. 8 with a 63-44 victory over a stubborn North Union squad.

The game was tied at the end of the first quarter and remained tight until the middle of the third period before the Bulldogs finally widened out their advantage for the win.

WEST BEND—Storm Lake St. Mary’s took the lead early and went onto a 55-42 Twin Lakes Conference boys’ basketball win over the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

Two Wolverines hit double digits in Jaxon Zaugg with 13 points and Collin Montag added 12 more. Mitch Stevens chipped in with nine points as Max Fehr tallied six points and Landon Montag rounded out the scoring with two points.

FORT DODGE—Algona outscored St. Edmond 50-36 in the second half to rally for an exciting 74-72 North Central Conference boys’ basketball victory on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

St. Edmond jumped out to a 16-8 lead at the conclusion of the first stanza and led 36-24 at intermission. The Gaels led 51-49 after the third quarter before the Bulldogs outscored the home team 25-21 in the final frame for the win.