NM Season Ends in Regional Final
IOWA CITY – North Mahaska saw its girls’ basketball season come to an end at Iowa City West when they lost to No. 8 Winfield-Mount Union in the Class 1A Region 8 final, 52-47. North Mahaska (20-4) had a solid defense most of the night, but the Lady Wolves used a strong third quarter to overcome North Mahaska.
WMU held a 15-13 lead after one period. NM switched to more of a man-defense and shut down the Lady Wolves in the second frame. WMU missed a pair of free throws, and it was not until the 27 second mark when Bradie Buffington hit a bucket for the Lady Wolves.
Meanwhile Libby Hargis and Regan Grewe led the charge for NM. Hargis dropped in a 3-pointer while Grewe added a bucket and a pair of free throws as fouls mounted for both teams.
Coming out at halftime all-stater Melina Oepping took over the game. She scored 18 of her game-high 24 in the second half, six of them in the first two minutes. Oepping hit a pair of charity shots with 3:38 to play in the third quarter for a 32-31 lead. Breckyn Schilling and Sydney Andersen dropped in a pair of buckets to regain the lead for NM. Andersen picked up her fourth foul and had to sit. WMU hit the foul shots and never relinquished the lead again.
“I can’t fault our defense,” said NM coach L.E. Moore. “We played hard and shut them down in the second quarter, we just couldn’t pull away from them.
“Our turnovers got to us. You can’t turn the ball over in the fourth quarter. I wish we could have gotten the lead and kept it because we were playing good defense.”
North Mahaska turned the ball over 16 times in the game, but four of those were in the crucial fourth period. WMU had the advantage from the charity stripe hitting 13-for-20 while NM went to the line 10 times hitting seven. Both teams hit 16 field goals with NM taking 51 shots and the Lady Wolves shooting 47.
Schilling led NM in scoring with 16. Andersen also finished in double figures with 10 and Grewe had nine. Senior Jessica Castaneda finished her night with six points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Moore mentioned his two seniors Amelia Dahm and Castaneda.
“I am proud of them,” said Moore. “They played four years and stuck with it. Jess played her butt off out there going against that all-stater. Amelia stayed out and worked hard.”
Oepping had seven rebounds to go with her 24 points. Keetyn Townsley had 11 points before fouling out late in the game. Keely Malone had eight points and six rebound while Buffington finished with seven points.
WMU, 22-1, will open the state tournament on Wednesday, March 1 against third-seeded North Linn (22-1), who beat Montezuma, 69-40, at 6:45 p.m.
