The North Butler and West Fork girls and boys basketball teams, fresh off games on Monday, will meet for the first time this season as part of a Top of Iowa Conference-East doubleheader on Tuesday, which will air on 104.9 KLMJ. The Warhawks have controlled the series recently, as the girls have won nine straight and the boys have won five straight.
The West Fork girls (7-2, 3-1 TIC-East) won their second straight game in the new year, 47-31 at home over Osage in conference play on Monday. The Warhawks have produced second chances to score with 13 offensive rebounds per game. Nehir Kanat leads with 10 points per game followed by Karma McMorris with 7.3.
Head Coach Rodney Huber on the quick turnaround between game days and taking on the Bearcats.
“This is how we play. This is what the girls are comfortable in. Things are coming together really well for us. We don’t need to make a lot of adjustments so we focus on ourselves first and that suited us pretty well,” says Huber. “That’s one of those games that you hope that you can get up pretty quick, kind of like what we did tonight. You can kind of take them out of their flow and their confidence. If you let some teams hang around with you they can become dangerous. We’ll hope that we can get up fast on them.”
The North Butler girls (1-7, 1-4 TIC-East) fell 61-15 at #13 (3A) Hampton-Dumont-CAL in non-conference on Monday. The Bearcats continue to work hard to increase offensive output from 37.2 points per game with balanced scoring through 10.5 assists per game. Zoey Thompson leads with 10.7 points per game and Eden Wix is the top rebounder with nine per game.
The West Fork boys (3-4, 2-2 TIC-East) lost 68-56 to Osage in conference on Monday. The Warhawks keep the ball moving on offense with 13 assists per game. Three Warhawks are averaging double figure scoring, including Ashyr Wiseman (18), Xavier Baptiste (11.5), Nolan Shreckengost (10.5).
The North Butler boys (1-6, 1-4 TIC-East) lost 53-52 on a buzzer-beating layup at Hampton-Dumont-CAL in non-conference on Monday. The Bearcats have shot the ball inside the perimeter at 36.2 percent.
Head Coach Austin Guerrero on the Bearcats’ depth of production.
“I feel like we’re really a tough team to scout. We don’t have a guy that’s leading our stat sheet in every category, but we have a group of guys and a collectiveness of all of our players that play about 10 deep that can do a bunch of different things for us,” says Guerrero. “It Just kind of shows that we have a solid team and now it’s about putting it all together.”
Ryan Austin leads with 9.8 points and eight rebounds per game.
Coverage on 104.9 KLMJ will begin at 6:05 p.m. followed by the opening tip at 6:15 p.m. in Greene.
