Free throw shooting down the stretch can often times be the difference in winning and losing the ball game, and it was for the Turkey Valley boys basketball team in the district final playoff game on Thursday night held at New Hampton High School.
In the Northeast Iowa Conference this season, only two players ranked inside the top 10 individually in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game.
One was New Hampton’s Drake Wemark.
The Northeast Iowa Conference implemented five-on-five girls basketball in the 1994-1995 season. Up until this year, there hadn’t been a single freshman honored as a Northeast Iowa Conference first-team player.
With 12.3 seconds left in Turkey Valley’s regional contest against Kee last Tuesday, the Trojans’ Jalyssa Blazek was at the free throw line and the TV girls owned a slim 54-52 lead.
It wasn’t where they wanted to end the 2019-20 season, but the fact of the matter is New Hampton/Turkey Valley’s Carson Babcock and Jacob Reicks both knew there were literally thousands of wrestlers in Iowa who would have loved trading places with
It was an absolute war until the very end, but the Turkey Valley boys basketball team gutted out a close back-and-forth victory over Janesville - who entered with a record of 19-4 - 42-37 in the district final game on Thursday night at New Hampton
Turkey Valley’s boys started their postseason game against Central rather slowly, but it wasn’t the first time it took awhile for the scoring machines to get rolling. Once they did, the Trojans breezed to a 68-34 win.
Evan Rosonke stood in the hallway at Wells Fargo Arena and tried to fathom what had just happened.
The New Hampton/Turkey Valley senior was a state champion.
New Hampton knew Crestwood’s Sharon Goodman was going to get her points, and the University of Iowa commit did — scoring 29 points — during the last regular season game of the year.
After riding a two-game winning streak heading into last week, the New Hampton boys basketball team was hoping to end the regular season strong in their final two contests against Northeast Iowa Conference foes Crestwood and Waukon.
Turkey Valley’s girls weren’t happy about a loss to Kee High in early February, and with a 66-22 win over Starmont in the first round of regional action, they’ll be able to do something about it tonight (Tuesday).
In a game that was determined in the final seconds, Turkey Valley defeated Kee High 55-52 Tuesday night to advance to the regional semifinal round of the girls basketball playoffs.
New Hampton girls basketball coach Chad Pemble used one word to describe how he was feeling after the Chickasaws fell to Waukon in the regional opener on Saturday — numb.
