It was a South Iowa Cedar League split Friday night in the Area Game of the Week, as the Keota Eagle girls basketball team broke a 22 game winless streak to rival Sigourney, and the Savage boys nabbed their second straight win over the Eagles in an overtime thriller heard live on the KCII3 Stream.
Up first was the girls game, and action began quickly as junior Emily Conger began the scoring with an early triple to engage a packed Keota High School gymnasium. The pace of play continued to favor the Eagles, as they raced out to a 19-10 lead when the first quarter reached its end. The lead would grow into 15 points by halftime thanks to a 12-0 Eagle run spanning from the tail end of the first period to midway through the second frame. Out of the locker rooms, both sides brought the intensity, with a combined 37 points in the third quarter alone. However, it was Keota that continued to answer any Sigourney run, adding one more to their lead before the final eight minutes. It was in the fourth quarter that Keota was able to find their way to the foul line to put away the win and bury the Savages for the first time since 2014 by a final of 66-52.
Unofficially, Keota lost turnovers by seven, but won rebounds by 11. It was a tie at the top of the score sheet for the victorious Eagles, as freshman Jessalyn Aller and Conger each had 16. They were followed by Cameron Haifley’s 14 and Karley Greiner’s 10. The trio of Aller, Conger and Haifley each earned co-Eagle of the Game honors. For Sigourney, Brynn Clarahan had the best outstanding individual effort of the night, scoring a game-high 31 points. The next closest Savage, Addy Fineran, had five. After the game, Keota senior Kennedy Jackson joined KCII Sports to express her emotions on breaking the long losing streak to Sigourney.
“It feels amazing! We came into this game kind of nervous, but we knew that we had to go in very strong and start off the game strong,” Jackson said. “So, I think we did that, and also our defense was amazing today. I think that really helped us.”
Keota raises its record to 6-0 overall, 4-0 in SICL play while Sigourney drops to 3-2 on the year and 2-2 in league action.
In the boys game, the home crowd was also treated to a fast Keota start after the Eagles began the game on an 8-0 run. Sigourney would fire right back, though, with a 7-0 run of their own to cut the gap to a single point. The Eagles would close the period strong and take a three point advantage into the second. They would again hold their own and add onto the lead to make it a five point deficit for the Savages to dig out of out of the halftime break. Sigourney would begin to do just that, powered by a 12-6 rebounding advantage in the third period to crawl back within two points headed into the ever pivotal fourth quarter. Sigourney would continue to crash the boards strong, giving second chance opportunities for their offense before a missed shot in the final seconds by the Savages sent action into overtime. In the final four minutes, the Sigourney defense would come up clutch, locking down the Keota offense and holding them to no points after regulation to steal the road conference win 57-51.
Unofficially, the Savages won both rebounds and turnovers by 17 and two, respectively. Sigourney won rebounds 32-11 after half. John Berg was the hero on the night for Sigourney, leading them in points with 14 followed up by fellow senior Brayden Wood’s 12. Wood joined KCII Sports after the game to share his thoughts on the OT win.
“It was definitely a hard-fought win for sure,” Wood said. “But those are the games you live for I guess. You don’t really like to play those games where you’re blowing teams out by 30 or 40. These are the games where you go on the road and you get a tough, gritty win and it might be a battle to the end and you might be tired, but that’s the fun in it.”
Keota was led by a game-high 18 points from Porter Cave. Sigourney improves to 3-1 overall and in league play before returning next Tuesday at HLV. Keota will return to play a Saturday matinee in the Area Game of the Week against Moravia with 3-1 overall and conference records.