Top seeds roll at state basketball

DES MOINES — The first week of March’s state basketball action saw four of the five No. 1 seeds in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s weeklong tournament go home with state titles, and one week later, the boys’ tournament matched the chalk.

Much like at the end of the girls’ tournament, which was played on the same floor, Friday’s state basketball championships were dominated by the No. 1 seeds. Three of the four top seeds in the 2023 Iowa High School boys state tournament got out of Wells Fargo with a first-place trophy in hand.

New London Tigers center Kade Benjamin (35) reaches up to block Grand View Christian Thunder guard Noah John (35) as he shoots the ball in the first quarter during the boys’ state basketball class 1A quarterfinals in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday, March 6, 2023. Later in the week, Grand View would cruise to the Class 1A state championship with dominant wins in the semifinals and finals. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

After having quite the sweat against New London in the first round, Grand View Christian rolled over the rest of the competition in the Class 1A bracket. The Thunder, who had to pull away late to beat the Tigers 61-51 in the quarterfinals, won their next two games by a total of 35 points.

Grand View ran all over fourth-seeded West Harrison in the first Class 1A semifinal. They would draw second-seeded North Linn in the final after the Lynx stormed back to nip Remsen St. Mary’s 52-50 in the other semifinal.

In Friday’s Class 1A championship, Grand View showed why they were the favorite all year long. The Thunder smashed the Lynx 63-46, earning the ultimate revenge for a loss in last year’s championship game.

In Class 2A, Central Lyon smoked Des Moines Christian 74-41 in the quarterfinals, but they got all they could handle from fourth-seeded Pella Christian in the semis.

The same Pella Christian team that had to week out a substate final win over West Burlington nearly knocked off the No. 1 team in the class, as Central Lyon survived a last-second shot attempt to advance on 56-55.

In the Class 2A championship, Central Lyon took on No. 3 seed Western Christian, a school that had won its first two games by 25 points and 18 points respectively. Still, Central Lyon had plenty left in the tank to beat Western Christian 71-59 in the championship.

In Class 3A, it was Bondurant-Farrar who ran the gantlet to earn their first championship since the 1990s. After beating Algona 81-52 in the quarterfinals, the Blue Jays knocked off fifth-seeded North Polk 54-45 in the semis to earn a date with No. 2 seed Xavier.

Xavier had won its first two games of the tournament by double-digits, and the Crusaders gave the Blue Jays quite the game, but Bondurant-Farrar prevailed 58-55.

Newton, the team that shared a substate with Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield and Washington, was shut down in the first round. North Polk defeated the Cardinals 49-31 in the quarters.

While the smaller three classes were all chalk, the Class 4A tournament was everything but. The chaos started when top-seeded and undefeated Cedar Rapids Kennedy was stunned 57-45 by No. 8 seed Pleasant Valley in the quarterfinals.

Pleasant Valley would go on to lose 58-51 against Valley in the semifinals, and the Tigers would face a red-hot Waukee Northwest team in the Class 4A championship.

In a matchup of the third-seeded Waukee Northwest squad and fourth-seeded Valley, it was the Valley Tigers who prevailed, knocking off the Wolves 75-67 in the championship game.