Area b-ball players compete in All-Star games

BURLINGTON - Some of the area's best high school basketball players were at Father Minett Gymnasium on Saturday night for the Southeast Iowa senior All Star games, hosted by Notre Dame. Area players who just finished their senior season on the court were invited to play, reguardless of which class they usually play in.

The night included a full boys game, a full girls game, two 3-point contests and a dunk contest.

The girls game was won 90-89 by the Gold team, a squad that included Fairfield's Shay Drish and Destiny Gridley, Cardinal's Maddie Cloke and the Van Buren County duo of Taryn Scheuermann and Madison Bartholomew. Scheuermann had the game-winning tip in the final seconds after a missed 3-pointer by Drish.

The gold team led 48-41 at halftime, but the silver squad came back to take the lead late. On that silver team was New London's Kara Krieger and Layney Loyd and Pekin's Emilee Linder, among others.

At halftime, both Bartholomew and Drish took part in the 3-point contest. Lone Tree's Holley Johnson ripped the nets, however and took the girl 3-point championship plaque home.

Before the boys game started up, a handful of players took part in a dunk contest. New London's Grant Swanson won the competition, beating out WACO's Nik Coble and Notre Dame's Mitchell Brent in the process.

In the boys game, the silver team led 56-48 at halftime and ended up winning 113-98. Minimal defense was played throughout the night.

The silver team included a handful of area players, Coble and Drew Kissell of WACO; Kobe Borntrager of Hillcrest Academy; Mason McFarland and Cole Adamson of Highland, and Daunte Oepping and Jared Arnole of Winfield-Mt. Union.

The gold squad included Eric Valdez of Columbus; Swanson and Markel Luckett of New London; Tony Davidson and Jonah Heckenberg of Van Buren County, Jaxon Hoyle, Clayton Lowery and Keegan Kohorst of Mt. Pleasant and Nick Tschudy of Pekin.

Mt. Pleasant' Jaxon Hoyle made the 3-point finals at halftime of the boys game, besting the rest in the first round. Notre Dame's Nick Skerik clipped Hoyle in the finals.