HISTORIC HAWKS! Three-game regional tournament trek topped off by 61-58 OT thriller


Young guards show veteran leadership ... Kee girls basketball sophomore Ashley Schwartzhoff (photo above) and freshman Makayla Walleser (photo at left below) combined to score 12 of the Hawks’ 14 points in overtime to lead Kee to its 61-58 overtime triumph over Lynnville-Sully in the Class 1A Region 3 championship game at Cedar Falls Monday, February 22. Walleser finished the game with 16 points and Schwartzhoff racked up 15 points to pace the Hawks to their historic victory. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on The Standard’s website, www.waukonstandard.com.

Never done before, and never to be forgotten.
That’s the climactic tale of the Kee girls basketball team’s historic venture through Class 1A regional tournament play this past week that was topped off by the first-ever State Tournament qualification in the history of the Lady Hawk hardcourt program. Following relatively easy victories of 52-33 over Central Elkader in the regional quarterfinals Tuesday, February 16 and 65-30 over Dunkerton in the regional semifinals Friday, February 19, the fifth-rated Kee basketball girls put the icing on their regional tournament cake Monday, February 22 with a 61-58 overtime triumph over 14th-rated Lynnville-Sully in regional championship play to punch their first-ever ticket to the season grand finale in Des Moines.

ON TO STATE!
The Hawks will now take their 22-2 overall season record to Des Moines to begin Class 1A State Tournament play Monday, February 29 at Wells Fargo Arena, playing against fourth-rated and 23-1 Burlington-Notre Dame at 11:45 a.m. in the first round of that season grand finale. Burlington-Notre Dame comes off a 49-36 Region 4 championship victory over Bellevue Marquette and will be making its third trip to the Class 1A State Tournament in the past four seasons, winning the Class 1A State Championship in its second appearance in 2014.
A win next Monday will advance the Hawks to the Class 1A second round Thursday, March 3 at 10 a.m. against either fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad - top-rated and 24-0 Turkey Valley - or unrated Mount Ayr, upset regional winners over eighth-rated Grand View Christian. A second win would move them on to the Class 1A State Championship game Friday, March 4 at 6 p.m. against a team from the other side of the Class 1A State Tournament bracket that features first-round match-ups of second-rated Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton (23-0) vs. seventh-rated Newell-Fonda (18-6) and third-rated Springville (23-1) vs. sixth-rated Kingsley-Pierson (21-2).

 

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