The #15 (2A) West Fork girls basketball team will look to clinch the Top of Iowa Conference-East title outright and the boys will look for the season series sweep at Central Springs on Tuesday. West Fork swept the first meeting as the girls won 61-42 and the boys won 70-47 on January 28.
The West Fork girls (17-3, 12-1 TIC-East) have won five in a row, including a 61-33 win at Osage on Monday. The Warhawks defense frustrates opponents with 17 steals per game. Leah Weaver leads with 16.5 points and four assists per game.
West Fork Head Coach Rodney Huber on staying locked in during the conference title race and beyond.
“It’s a exciting time of the year. Obviously the conference race is kind of heating up here. We’re neck-and-neck with St. Ansgar and Newman’s trailing right behind us so we can’t really afford to fall asleep here,” says Huber. “We just want to keep carrying our momentum as we as we go here into district play. It’s important that we don’t take days off and we don’t take games off.”
The Central Springs girls (9-10, 6-6 TIC-East) lost 44-42 to New Hampton in non-conference on Thursday. The Panthers put in extra effort on the boards with 15 offensive rebounds per game. Kaci Crum leads the team with a double-double per game at 17.7 points and 13.5 rebounds.
The West Fork boys (9-10, 6-7 TIC-East) had their season-long win streak of five games, snapped by a 63-36 loss at Osage on Monday. Ball movement is foundational to the Warhawks offense with 12 assists per game. Ashyr Wiseman leads with 15.9 points per game.
Warhawks Head Coach Abe Maske on growing confidence as postseason nears.
“We played them at home not too long ago and we got a nice win. We’re really going to probably work on continuing to do the things that we’ve been doing. We’re not going to change much,” says Maske. “We’re going to keep pushing forward with our focus 100% on getting ourselves to the point where we want to be, for when the tournament run starts. I think we’re getting there and that’s going to be another stop for us to really gain that confidence to roll in to the tournament.”
The Central Springs boys (1-19, 0-12 TIC-East) have lost four in a row, including a 54-46 loss to New Hampton on Thursday. Braydin Crum leads with 10 points and six rebounds per game.
Action will begin at 6:15 p.m. in Manly.
