Waukon girls basketball team splits pair of State Tournament games to earn “final four” finish among Class 3A hoop elite
Best season in nearly a decade ended by eventual State Runner-Up ... Members of the Waukon girls basketball team display their State Tournament Semifinalist trophy after their 65-49 loss in the semifinal round of the Class 3A State Tournament to top-rated and top-seeded North Polk Thursday, February 28. The loss ended the Indians’ 2018-2019 season at a 19-4 overall record, their best season mark since the last time the Indians were at the State Tournament, the 2009-2010 season in which the Indians compiled a 25-2 mark and finished as the Class 3A State Runner-Up. North Polk went on to finish as this season’s Class 3A State Tournament Runner-Up, falling to third-rated and second-seeded Center Point-Urbana, 54-36, in the Class 3A State Championship game. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.
Defeats Crestwood, 48-37, falls to runner-up North Polk, 65-49; Headington chosen All-Tournament
The old saying goes that all good things must come to an end, but for the Waukon girls basketball team that good thing came to an end at a great place where 60 of this season’s other 63 Class 3A teams would love to have been. Playing their way to the State Tournament for the first time since the program’s Class 3A State Runner-Up finish to cap off the 2009-2010 season, the basketball Lady Indians played their way to Class 3A’s “final four” teams at this season’s grand finale held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines February 25-March 2, splitting the two games they were able to play before bowing out in the semifinal round of the Class 3A eight-team bracket.
That split began with a 48-37 triumph over an all too familiar foe for the ninth-rated and fifth-seeded Tribe - seventh-rated and fourth-seeded Crestwood from its very own Northeast Iowa Conference - Monday, February 25 in the opening round of the Class 3A season grand finale. The Indians followed that victory with a 65-49 loss to top-rated and top-seeded North Polk in the Class 3A semifinals Thursday, February 28, with those highly-regarded Comets then advancing on to fall hard, 54-36, to third-rated and second-seeded Center Point-Urbana in the Class 3A championship game.
That semifinals loss ends the Indians’ season with a 19-4 overall record, the best season mark since that 2009-2010 campaign finished with a 25-2 overall result. Waukon sophomore Annika Headington also played her way to Class 3A All-Tournament Team recognition, finishing as the Class 3A tournament’s fifth-leading scorer with 25 points and third among Class 3A State Tournament participants with 10 assists and six offensive rebounds, despite playing just two games in comparison to four of the five other Class 3A All-Tournament Team members playing three.
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