The Keota Eagle boys and girls basketball teams closed the 2025 portion of the season Monday night with a South Iowa Cedar League split of the North Mahaska Warhawks in a doubleheader heard live on KCII.

The opener saw the Keota girls fall for the third-straight contest in a 70-46 loss. The Warhawks outscored the Eagles 18-8 in the first quarter, powered by a three-point party by Addisen Falb, Carly Lake and Jolan Fogle all splashing in a combined four triples. Keota would again be outscored by 10 in the second frame after eight points in the quarter from North Mahaska junior Nataliya Linder. While Keota would show more fight in the third period, they would still be outscored 18-14 heading into the fourth. In the final eight minutes, the Eagles would cut the gap to 19, but could not get any closer as the Warhawks would cash in three more treys to close the win.

Unofficially, North Mahaska won the glass 34-24, losing turnovers 13-20. Linder led the way in the win, scoring 22, followed by Lake at 18. Keota had four players score at least seven points, including Jessalyn Aller at the top with eight followed by seven each from Cameron Haifley, Kennedy Jackson and Karley Greiner. With the loss, the Eagles fall to 6-3 while the Warhawks improve to 4-3.

In the boys’ game, Keota took a back-and-forth affair 66-61. Action was tight early, seeing the Eagles lead by two 19-17 after one, and by just a single point 29-28 at half. The third quarter saw the highest combined point total of the night between the teams at 42 with 21 on each side. Porter Cave and Jackson Vittetoe combined for 17 of the points in the frame for the Eagles, while the Warhawks’ Jaxon VanDerVeer had 10. In the fourth, Keota was able to find themselves in the double bonus early, securing the win at the foul line.

Unofficially, Keota won turnovers 13-20, but lost the glass by 10. Cave scored a game-high 21 points, followed by Vittetoe’s 13 and Ayden Galindo’s 10. VanDerVeer led North Mahaska with 20 points. After the game, Cave joined KCII Sports on the Area Game of the Week postgame show as the Washington County Hospital and Clinics Eagle of the Game to talk about the win.

“ The last three games, we’ve been in close games and we’ve pushed through. We’ve played good. We just haven’t went our way. And this one finally went our way. We pulled through. We had a good second half, which has been our struggle. Our defense could have been a little bit better. It’s been better the last three games, but our offense really pulled through and we finally made some shots,” Cave said.

Keota raises its record to 4-3 overall, while North Mahaska drops to 2-5. Both teams are set to return in January after the holiday break.