Wild week at girls state basketball tournament

DES MOINES — The 2022 Iowa state girls basketball tournament has come and gone and the week at Wells Fargo didn’t come without some surprises.

Out of the five classes holding tournaments at ‘The Well,’ only two of them finished with a top-ranked team on top. No. 1 seeds won two championships over the weekend. Two No. 4 seeds and one No. 2 seed brought home trophies as well.

In Class 1A, Burlington Notre Dame came in as the lone representative from the Southeast Iowa Super Conference. Unfortunately for the Nikes, they drew eventual champion Bishop Garrigan in the first round.

Garrigan ran through the first two rounds of the Class 1A tournament. Garrigan pounded Notre Dame 77-42 in the quarterfinals and downed No. 6 North Linn 74-57 to earn a spot in the state championship.

In the state title game, Bishop Garrigan faced off with fourth-seeded MMCRU, a team that had upset top-seeded Newell-Fonda 66-62 in the semifinals. Garrigan survived a late comeback bid to win the title 52-49.

Top-seeded Dike New-Hartford took down the Class 2A title in impressive fashion. The Wolverines blasted through the first two rounds, sinking eight-seeded South Central Calhoun 64-44 and No. 4 Panorama 67-23. Panorama had downed local regional winner Iowa City Regina 46-38 in the opening round.

D-NH got a bit of a scare from No. 3 Central Lyon in the Class 2A final, but walked away with a 59-52 victory.

After knocking Mid-Prairie out in the regional final, Davenport Assumption nearly pulled off an eight-seed versus one-seed upset against Unity Christian in the Class 3A quarterfainls. Unity escaped 40-37, but would get blistered by fourth-seeded Estherville-Lincoln Central in the semifinals.

E-LC had a dominant run through the Class 3A bracket. They thumped Sergeant Bluff-Luton 49-34 in the first round, upset Unity Christian 57-44 in the semifinals and bounced No. 3 Ballard 44-30 to earn the title.

The No. 4 seed also won in Class 4A. After winning the local Class 4A region, Cedar Rapids Xavier escaped No. 5 Central Dewitt 62-55 in the opening round, survived top-seeded Dallas Center Grimes in a 55-50 triple-overtime thriller and ran past No. 3 seed Bishop Heelan 54-40 to take home the trophy.

Class 1A’s top-seeded Johnston had to scrap in the Class 5A quarterfinals. The unbeaten Dragons defeated Dowling Catholic 47-38 in the opener, but coasted from that point on. Johnston pounded fourth-seeded Pleasant Valley 64-44 in the semifinal and whipped sixth-seeded Waterloo West 51-31 in the final.

Girls basketball week covered only half of the action to be played at Wells Fargo in March. The Iowa high school boys state tournament begins Monday.