The Iowa Falls-Alden girls basketball team went on a scoring run late in the fourth quarter to rally for a 56-52 win over Hardin County rival South Hardin in their season opener on Friday.
The Tigers held a seven point advantage at 18-11 after the first quarter. IFA started to heat up from beyond the arc and outscored the Tigers 17-9 in the second quarter to hold a one point lead at 28-27 entering the half. The third quarter was neck and neck between the teams as the Tigers won the quarter 15-14 to even the game a 42-42 heading to the fourth. With just over 3:30 to go in the fourth, the Tigers led 49-45, the Cadets responded with an 11-3 scoring run to pull ahead and never surrendered the lead again for the season opening win.
IFA Head Coach Michael Collison on matching physicality and staying focused at key moments.
“It was a tough game, it was a physical game. We told our girls that if we can match their physicality, we can withstand the runs that would happen, we could give ourselves a chance to win. That’s kind of what happened tonight,” says Collison. “It is a combination of our kids really focusing in, in our timeouts at the end of the game, because the reality is, we haven’t been able to put everything in yet. We’ve only had nine days of working with our kids ahead of our first game. We talked about some things, drew some things up right there in the huddle and our kids executed. I think also just a credit to some veteran kids making some important shots.”
The Cadets were led by Cidni Phipps with 20 points and Brooklyn Handeland with 13 points, including four three pointers.
South Hardin Head Coach Nick Eller on the competitive matchup and growing from it.
“I really thought both teams actually played pretty well. Hats off to Iowa Falls, I thought they played just a little bit better, hit a few more shots at some big times. We had our chances, so no one to blame but ourselves,” says Eller. “Overall thought it was just a good back and forth game. Never really got any more than the biggest lead maybe at eight, 10 points, after that, usually it was always within five. Really early in the season, you could tell there’s a lot of rust to get worn off yet. Hopefully something we can just build off now, a lot we can go back and work on now.”
The Tigers were led by Alli Shelldahl with 20 points and Ayda Eller also finished in double figures with 12 points, including three triples.
Iowa Falls-Alden (1-0) will host West Marshall on Tuesday. South Hardin (0-1) will host Oelwein on Tuesday, December 3rd.
