All-GTNS small school girls basketball team released

After some serious discussion that went on for an extended length of time, Iowa Mennonite School's Suzanna Yoder and Van Buren's Taryn Schuerman were selected as Co-Captains for the 2018-19 All-Golden Triangle News Services Small School Girls Basketball team for the 2018-19 season.

Suzanna Yoder, senior, Iowa Mennonite School

Yoder was second in the state and first in Class 1A in scoring at 27.5 points a game. That was after scoring 22.2 points a game during her junior year to place ninth in the state regardless of class and first in Class 1A. As a junior, Yoder was fourth in Class 1A in 3-pointers made with 65. As a senior she was first with 75. She was 145 of 198 on free throws for 73.2 percent, but when it counted most she was 100 percent. In a road game, she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with no time on the clock and IMS trailed by two points, Yoder made all three free throws for the win. Yoder was the engine of the IMS team and helped them improve tremendously over the season. IMS lost by 45 points to third-ranked Lynville Sully in the first game of the season, then played them in the last game of the season, losing 56-42. Yoder led the team in assists with 97 and steals with 70. Yoder helped IMS achieve a double-digit win total for the first time since the 20013-14 season. Yoder also set the IMS single-game scoring record this season, twice, and that was after tying it. The record now is 45 points which came in a 63-61 win over Highland, a team IMS had lost to 51-25 earlier in the season.

Taryn Scheuermann, junior, Van Buren

The 6-foot-3 post set the state record for a single game when she swatted away 21 of her team-high 181 blocks collected over 24 games, giving her an average of 7.5 per contest while only accumulating 42 fouls during that same stretch. Scheuermann also grabbed 214 rebounds and 15 steals defensively while only committing 42 turnovers herself, offensively. The Northern-Iowa commit led her team in scoring with 451 points for 19.6 per game while shooting 49-percent from the field and 79 percent from the charity stripe. This is Scheuermann's third consecutive all-GTNS selection and second as captain.

Shaelyn Becker, senior, Mid-Prairie

Becker was a force on the Golden Hawks in one of the state's toughest conferences. Becker helped Mid-Prairie to a 6-0 start and a ranking in Class 3A. She led the River Valley Conference in field goal percentage (of those with at least 15 made field goals) at 51.5 percent, making 103 of 200. She was eighth in the league with 137 rebounds, an average of 6.2 per game. Primarily a post player, she was 11th in the legue with 44 assists. She also had 22 steals and 11 blocks. Becker grabbed her 500th career rebound in her final game, which was a loss to the eventual Class 3A state champion, Center Point-Urbana. CPU won its three games at the state tournament by an average of 28 points. Mid-Prairie lost by 24.

Aly Stokes, senior, Highland

Stokes could do it all for the Huskies. She helped Highland to a 15-8 record while scoring her 1,000th career point and was first in Class 2A in rebounds with 265 for an average of 11.5 a game. Her scoring average of 17.3 points per game was fourth in the Southeast Iowa Super ConferenceNorth Division. She averaged almost 4 assists per game. She was second in Class 2A with a total of 133 blocks.

Isabel Manning, sophomore, Van Buren

The sophomore floor general was second on the Warriors in scoring with 12.3 points per game while shooting 46 percent from the field and 75 percent from the foul line. Manning also grabbed 184 rebounds, dished 46 assists and made 55 steals, as many as she had turnovers.

Haley Gambell, senior, Pekin

The Panther senior took over for her cousin who graduated a year ago and led Pekin with 13.5 points per game, shooting 50 percent from the field and 46-percent from the perimeter. The multi-sport standout for the Panthers also led the team in rebounds with 129 and blocks 10, while dishing 43 assists and grabbing 30 steals. This is Gambell's fourth all-GTNS selection between volleyball and basketball.

Matt Zietler, Van Buren, head coach

The Warrior skipper has spent nine years at Van Buren and is hoping to reach the pinnacle next year after running through the regular season with a 19-2 record to earn a first round bye before destroying Wayne and Pella Christian on their way to the Class 2A region 6 final where they fell to No. 2 ranked Central Decatur who eventually lost in the state semifinals. Coach Z and his current group of juniors are 54-13 over the last three seasons after going 15-31 the previous two. Zietler is an off and on selection as skipper of the all-GTNS girls' small volleyball and basketball teams'.

The 2018-19 All-GTNS teams were selected by Andy Krutsinger of the Mt. Pleasant News, Doug Brenneman of the Washington Evening Journal and Justin Webster of the Fairfield Ledger.