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Bears advance to regional semis
Aubrey Achenbach, Koehn combine for five threes Bears win
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
NORTH ENGLISH — The English Valleys girls basketball team knew it would be harder the third-time around against Iowa Valley.
And it was, but the Bears used a 19-point third quarter to pull away for the win in a Class 1A Region 2 second-round game Tuesday night in North English.
“I thought it was our biggest team win of the year,” English Valleys coach Chris Montross said. “Everybody stepped up and did what they had to do when they needed to.”
Iowa Valley started the game with an Izzy Kriegel three and jumped to a 7-2 lead early after beating the Bears’ press a few times.
The Bears closed the quarter on a 12-1 run with three-pointers from both Mallory Koehn and Aubrey Achenbach.
The Tigers started the second quarter hot from three themselves.
Maeci Marshall knocked in two, and Lydia Kriegel added another to tie the game at 17. The Tigers led 22-21 at half.
The Bears nearly doubled their score in the third and took over the game, starting on the defensive end. North English held the Tigers to no field goals for a good portion of the quarter while five different players scored for the Bears.
Kailor Lown started the quarter with a three and, after another one from Addison Achenbach and two free throws from Anna Luers, the score was 38-26.
The Tigers closed the quarter strong, cutting the lead to six after three quarters to 40-34.
Koehn hit another three for the Bears in the fourth, and Lydia Kriegel scored five of the Tigers’ seven in the quarter as the game reached its final, 50-41.
Lydia Kriegel led the Tigers with 20 points, and Marshall was also in double digits with 10.
Iowa Valley closes the season at 7-17.
All seven players who entered the floor for the Bears scored and were led by a balanced trio. Aubrey Achenbach led the way with 12, followed by Koehn’s 10 and nine from Ava Gehrking.
The Bears made it to the second-round last season with a lot of production from seniors and now advance to the regional semifinals with a roster of nine underclassmen.
“This team is gritty,” Montross said. “They have that dog mentality, and they’re not going to give up. They win their ball games with tenacious defense.”
