Class 1A – Substate 2 Final
Bishop Garrigan 73
South Winneshiek 60
The Bishop Garrigan boys basketball team punched their first ticket to the Iowa High School Athletic Association state basketball tournament since 2020, using a decisive third quarter run to turn the momentum of the substate final around and beat South Winneshiek 73-60 in substate 2.
Bishop Garrigan trailed throughout much of the first half, and found themselves down 48-43 with about five minutes to go in the third quarter. Back to back threes by Carter Schwab and Madden Miller started off the run and gave Bishop Garrigan a one point lead. The momentum continued to go downhill after that, as the Golden Bears scored 12 straight points, before a single free throw by the Warriors briefly interrupted the run. The Golden Bears then resumed with 9 more points in a row, as the quarter ended with another three by Miller, and back to back steals in the final 30 seconds leading to buckets by Michael Joyce and Carter Schwab. Bishop Garrigan finished the third scoring 21 of the last 22 points, taking a 64-49 lead.
Senior Tate Foertsch credited an adjustment to the Bishop Garrigan defense for the third quarter run.
Golden Bear Coach Mark Meister says Bishop Garrigan tried to disguise their defensive intentions.
In the fourth quarter, South Winneshiek would get no closer than eight points, as the Golden Bears closed out their 23rd win of the season in 25 games, while South Winneshiek ends their campaign at 21-4. Qualifying for state was a moment senior Amaury Thomas had been dreaming about for a long time.
Schwab says coming up one game short of the state tournament last season was motivation for this year’s Golden Bear team.
Michael Joyce scored 20, Carter Schwab had 18, Amaury Thomas put up 12 points and 13 boards, all 12 of his points coming in the second half, and Madden Miller scored 11 in the win. Carson Streeter had 18, and Matson Winings 17 in the loss.
Bishop Garrigan will be the number three seed at the state tournament, and take on sixth seeded Marquette Catholic at 7:15 on March 10th in the quarterfinal round. All Bishop Garrigan games at the state tournament will be broadcast live on KLGA 92.7 FM and KLGZ 98.5 FM/AM 1600.
Class 1A – Substate 1 Final
MMCRU 56
North Union 42
The North Union Warriors boys basketball team battled, but saw their season come to an end at the hands of the MMCRU Royals in the substate 1 final, 56-42.
North Union started solidly, taking a 13-8 lead after the first quarter, and held the lead for nearly the entire first half, before MMCRU tied the game at 18 with 2:49 to go in the first half, and took the lead with 2:24 left in the opening half, using an 11-0 scoring run to go up 23-18 before the Warriors tacked on the final four points of the second to make it 23-22 at intermission.
The Warriors would never see the lead again in the second half, as they went cold in the third quarter, trailing 38-28 heading into the fourth, before the Royals outscored them 18-14 in the final frame to close things out.
Khael Jones finished with 20 points for North Union, as no other Warrior had more than 5. Kamden Bork scored 18, Josh Peterson posted 16, and Wyatt Alesch had 10 for MMCRU.
MMCRU moves to 25-1, and will take on Boyden-Hull in the state quarterfinals, while North Union ends their season at 15-10.
