The time has finally come for this year’s SEISC Saturday Shootout games at Loren Walker Arena in West Burlington on the campus of Southeastern Community College. The Lone Tree Lady Lions and Columbus Wildcats will look to gather a pair of victories over South Division foes Danville and Mediapolis as part of the KCII Area Game of the Week.
The Lone Tree girls will represent the Superconference North as the second seed. The Lady Lions are 17-3 overall and finished conference play 13-3 this season after defeating Hillcrest on the road Tuesday. Lone Tree scores 58 points-per-game and gives up 35, shooting 34% from the field, 27% from three and 55% at the line, with 37 rebounds, 11 assists, 16 steals, three blocks and 15 turnovers an outing. Individually, Finley Jacque leads the team with her 16 points, four steals and three assists a game.
The Danville girls will take on Lone Tree in the battle for second place. The Lady Bears are 13-6 overall and 11-3 in the Superconference South. This year, Danville scores 45 per game and gives up 39, shooting 38% from the floor, 18% from three and 55% at the charity stripe, with a South Division-leading 33 boards, 11 assists, 15 steals, one block and 26 turnovers a night. The Lady Bears are led by Alaina Gourley’s 14 points, five steals, three assists and seven rebounds per game.
The Lone Tree girls are riding an eight-game winning streak, and Head Coach Ryan Shelman tells KCII Sports he wants to keep that streak alive after their battle with the Lady Bears today. “They [Danville] do a lot of nice things,” Shelman said. “They are well-coached and play really well together. They play hard, and do a good job defensively as well. We are anticipating a battle and we just have to take care of things, and take every game one at a time.”
In the Varsity Bound era, Lone Tree leads the series 5-3 dating back to 2012. The Lady Bears have taken the last three matchups.
The Columbus girls will look to take home Superconference gold today after they locked up their first ever North Division title on Tuesday by capturing the season sweep over Pekin. The ‘Cats moved to 17 wins on the season with that victory, including their 14th in conference play. This season, the Wildcats score 51 per game and give up 37, shooting 30% from the field, 25% from three and 52% at the line, with 33 boards, 10 assists, 18 steals, one block and 14 turnovers a night. Their 18 steals are fourth-most in 2A. Lily Coil leads Columbus this year with her 16 points and nine rebounds per game.
The Mediapolis girls will look to continue a season to remember today by bringing home top honors in the Superconference. The Bullettes are 19-1 overall and have wrapped up an unbeaten 14-0 conference record. Per game, Mediapolis scores 67 and gives up 31, shooting 44% from the floor, 33% from beyond the arc and 54% from the stripe, with 31 rebounds, 22 assists, 25 steals, four blocks and 15 turnovers per game. Their 25 steals and 22 dimes top the charts in Iowa, while their 67 points-per-game leads Class 3A. Amelia Grier leads the Bullettes with 14 points a contest.
The spotlight will shine bright on the Columbus girls this afternoon come tipoff, but Head Coach Kasey Keltner tells KCII Sports his team is up for the challenge. “I am excited to get out there and compete,” Keltner said. “We do not have anything to worry about. We are just going to go out and play as hard as we can and do the things we are capable of doing and be us.”
In the Varsity Bound era, the Bullettes have never lost to Columbus through 27 games dating back to 2007.
You can hear today’s girls doubleheader from Southeastern Community College streaming exclusively online at KCIIRadio.com on the KCII3 Stream, beginning with pregame coverage of the second-place game between Lone Tree and Danville at 1:30, tipoff at 2, and coverage of the first-place game between Columbus and Mediapolis to follow from Loren Walker Arena in West Burlington.