DES MOINES, Iowa – From in close or from distance, it didn’t matter. The Dallas-Center Grimes shots just kept falling.
The second-seeded Mustangs shot 64 percent in building a 28-point lead in the fourth quarter and galloped past Waverly-Shell Rock 59-39 to open the Class 4A play at the 2026 state tournament.
The state champion in 2023, DCG (22-2) is going to the semifinals for the fifth time in the last six years and will play at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Waverly-Shell Rock, the state runner-up in 2024, had an 11-game winning streak broken and finishes its season at 22-2.
Dallas Center-Grime was especially accurate at the 3-point arc, knocking down nine of 14 shots from deep. The Mustangs finished the game at 56 percent and is now 9-4 in state tournament play since 2021.
Junior Macy Meyer, the youngest sister of IGHSAU Hall of Famer Makenzie Meyer, made all three of her 3-point shots and led the Mustangs with 17 points, shooting 7-for-11 overall. Leah Brauch went 3-for-4 from deep in scoring 10 points and Tessa Jones connected twice from distance while finishing with eight points.
Lizzy Frazell, a junior who has committed to Drake, led Waverly-Shell Rock 19 points, a figure that included five triples. Addie Ott added seven points for the Go-Hawks, who shot just 31.4 percent and never recovered after DCG’s early onslaught of shot making.
The Mustangs set the tone early, knocking down four of their first five 3-point shots in jumping to a 16-2 lead. A 12-2 second-quarter run stretched the lead to 30-8 before the Go-Hawks scored twice to trail 30-13 at halftime. They got no closer than 14 the rest of the way.
DCG shot 70 percent (7-for-10) in the first quarter stood at 67 percent at halftime, including 5-for-7 from deep.
After an evenly played third quarter, Jones sank two free throws early in the final period and followed with a trey to hike the lead to 48-26. The Mustangs still weren’t finished. Meyer buried her final 3 of the game to launch a 9-0 burst that made it 57-29 and reserves soon entered the game to finish up.
