No. 6 VBC stifled in SEISC shootout

MT. PLEASANT - Van Buren County came into the Southeast Iowa Super Conference shootout on Friday night having won six games in a row. The Warriors had only lost one game in SEISC play, and they were big favorites against a much smaller Wapello team. Unfortunately for Warrior fans, nobody remembered to tell the Arrows.

Wapello scrapped back from a seven-point halftime deficit and held the sixth-ranked Warriors to just six points in the fourth quarter to stun Van Buren 47-40, earning the first of two North Division wins at Iowa Wesleyan University.

Van Buren controlled the tempo in the first half. Although the Warriors were unable to get much separation from the Arrows, VBC did win the first two quarters and led the game 10-9 after eight minutes and 24-18 at the half. Despite playing through illness, Isabel Manning put up 10 first half points, and Van Buren looked in position to pull away when the second half began.

In the final two quarters, Wapello out-hustled the Warriors on both ends and bothered every offensive set Van Buren put out. Wapello cut the lead to 34-29 in the second quarter and then outscored Van Buren 18-6 in the fourth quarter.

'That's what you do when you don't have (a lot of) close games,” said Van Buren head coach Matt Zeitler. 'You make some turnovers, and things tighten up, and that's what happens.”

Taryn Scheuermann had eight points in the second half, and finished the game with a team-leading 14 points and six rebounds. Manning had 12 points. Madison Bartholomew finished with seven points. Grace Davidson had three points and three assists. Selena Sayre and Jaelyn Boley put up two points apiece, and Chloe Davidson pulled down six rebounds.

Wapello's Holly Massner led the game with 18 points and five steals.

'They're fast,” Zeitler said of the Arrows. 'They have five guards. They don't have a post on the team. That's a hard type of team for us to play, it just is. They're better than what I thought they were.”

Mediapolis followed Wapello's victory with a win of their own, toppling Notre Dame 56-49 in the No. 1 shootout game. That gave the North a two-game sweep in front of a packed Ruble Arena crowd.

Van Buren was back to their old ways one day later at Davis County. The Warriors dumped the Mustangs 63-25, giving up just 11 points in the first three periods. They'll be right back at it tonight when Van Buren hosts Danville for a boy-girl doubleheader at Harmony High School in Farmington.