Splitting a pair of three-point thrillers brings best season in Kee boys basketball history to an end, including 59-56 OT win over South Winn for first-ever district title and 52-49 heart-breaker in substate defeat
Junior pair takes turns leading the way with 24-point efforts ... The Kee boys basketball junior pair of Dalton Mudderman (photo above) and Jordan Cota (photo below) each took turns in leading the Hawks in their final two games of this season with 24-point efforts. Mudderman scored 24 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out a team-high five assists in Kee’s 59-56 win in overtime over South Winneshiek in the Class 1A District 12 Championship game played Tuesday, February 20 at Waukon High School, a game in which Cota also hit for double digits with 16 points and added a team-high nine rebounds. Cota took his turn at scoring 24 points in Kee’s 52-49 Class 1A Substate Championship loss to Gladbrook-Reinbeck Saturday, February 24 at Oelwein High School, a game in which Mudderman added another double-digit effort of his own with 17 points. Photos by Danielle Potter. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this webpage.
The historic run that has made the 2023-2024 Kee boys basketball season the best in program history was brought to an unfortunate close this past week, with the Hawks ending up on each end of a pair of three-point thrillers in the furthest postseason push ever by a Kee boys basketball team. The bucket Hawks began the week by laying claim to their first-ever district championship after pulling out a 59-56 overtime thriller in the Class 1A District 12 title game played against fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad South Winneshiek Tuesday, February 20 at Waukon High School.
That district win advanced Kee - again for the first time ever - to the Saturday, February 24 Class 1A Substate championship game played at Oelwein High School against a Gladbrook-Reinbeck team that sported a 20-5 season record but had four of those losses come by a combined nine points and the other come to Class 2A’s top-rated team from Hudson. With that Rebel squad coming off State Tournament qualification from last season and playing in a substate championship game for the fourth year in a row, the Hawks traded surges and eventually the lead in suffering a 52-49 loss that brought an end to this historic season.
The substate loss ends Kee’s 2023-2024 with a program-best record of 22-3 that includes additional history of a 15-1 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that produced the Hawks’ first-ever UIC season championship. With the win, Gladbrook-Reinbeck returned to the Class 1A State Tournament for a second consecutive season, with their reward being a first-round match-up Monday, March 4 against third-rated Marquette Catholic and its 21-1 season record.
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