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Haifley drops 35 as Eagles fly past Sabers
Keota’s Chase Haifley scores career-high as Keota boys basketball crushes Twin Cedars
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KEOTA — Chase Haifley activated takeover mode.
What started as a tight Class 1A-5 District 10 playoff game between Keota and Twin Cedars was blown open by the Eagles star senior. Haifley nearly matched his per game scoring average during a short stretch of the second quarter that ignited Keota for the rest of the game. The Eagles went on to trounce the Sabers 78-48 to advance to the district semifinals.
Haifley scored 13 unanswered points in the second quarter on the way to a career-high 35-point game. Cheers from Keota’s home crowd grew louder as each of his three made 3-pointers during the run found the bottom of the net.
“I think as a senior coming in knowing this is tournament time that he wanted to make sure he came out and took care of business,” Keota coach Dan Stout said of Haifley. “He shot the ball really well, and that's kind of the way we expected him to play all year long. He got hampered early in the year with that ankle injury. I think he's back to full strength right now, and it couldn't be at a better time.”
The senior finished the first half with 23 points. He helped Keota take a 41-27 halftime lead that grew in the second half. The Eagles quickly put the game out of reach, outscoring the Sabers 23-13 in the third, which allowed their leading scorer to sit for the final 4:07 of the game.
Haifley was quick to credit his teammates for finding him when he had the hot hand. Fellow senior Jackson Vittetoe finished in double figures with 10 points and dished out a team-high 10 assists. His passes created easy looks for Haifley and the rest of his Keota teammates.
“We've been playing our whole lives. We’re both seniors, and he did a great job of bringing the ball down the floor, finding me open,” Haifley said of Vittetoe. “I had confidence hitting down those shots, and once I saw a couple go in my teammates kept doing a great job of finding me and I just kept shooting the ball.”
Stout joked that Haifley’s only “bad shot” of the game was a heat-check 3 right after his 13-point solo run. Haifley’s scoring also came within the flow of a Keota offense. The Eagles cut Twin Cedars full court press apart and shot 45.1% from the field.
Porter Cave finished as the Eagles’ second-leading scorer with 11 points. Ayden Galindo finished with six points and 13 rebounds, while Blake Baker and Brennan McGuire each scored six points. Dacin Redlinger made two buckets in the fourth quarter for his first four points of the season.
“Our kids don't care who scores,” Stout said. “Our ultimate goal is trying to win the ball games and I think we're getting focused in for this run here down the tournament stretch, and it's going to get harder every night out, but I think we're ready to do it.”
Keota’s defense aided its offense by holding Twin Cedars to 25 points in the second and third quarters. The Eagles blocked seven shots and ran a 2-2-1 full court press that contributed to 17 steals, including giveaways on three straight possessions in the second quarter.
“We haven't done it much (this season),” Stout said. “We just started working on it in practice here... (but) these kids done it for years. I thought it put them in bad situations where they turned the ball over and we were able to get easy layups.”
The win sees Keota advance to the District 10 semifinals where it will face a familiar foe in Hillcrest Academy. The Ravens defeated Wapello 58-47 in their first playoff game Monday.
Vengeance will be on the mind of both teams in a high-stakes semifinal Thursday night. Keota handed Hillcrest its first loss of the season with a 59-44 victory Jan. 10. Thursday’s game will also be a rematch of last year’s 1A-4 District 7 semifinal when the Ravens ended the Eagles campaign with a 61-50 win.
“We're going in hoping to get some revenge,” Haifley said. “We’ve just got to go in with our defensive intensity. It's been high all year, so we really got to stay focused on that, and keep the offense going.”
Tipoff for between Keota and Hillcrest is set for 7 p.m. Thursday night at Hillcrest Academy. The winner will play for a district title against either Calamus-Wheatland or Iowa Valley.
