When It gets to the end of the season, there’s a good chance Newell-Fonda is still playing.
And so it is again this year. Newell-Fonda will finish the season in a state championship game for a record 13th time after coming from behind to beat North Linn 48-38 in the Class 1A semifinals, avenging a loss in last year’s title game.
The second-seeded Mustangs (22-4) will go after their fifth championship when they meet top seed Council Bluffs St. Albert (24-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday. St. Albert, which is looking for its first state title, advanced with a 59-51 victory over Bishop Garrigan.
Freshman Ellie Sievers had as much to do as anyone in getting Newell-Fonda to this stage, hitting two huge 3-pointers in the final 2 ½ minute to open up a tight game. Senior Kinzee Hinders led the Mustangs with 22 points and Sievers finished with 12, plus six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Jocee Walsh and Rylee Hogrefe each scored six for Newell-Fonda and Walsh was a force on defense, blocking five shots and making four steals, helping the Mustangs to a 17-3 edge in points off turnovers.
Emilee Beuter led North Linn (24-2) with a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double. Molly Boge scored 13 points for the Lynx , while Carly Ries added six points and six rebounds.
North Linn, which led by as many as 11 points in the first half, did a decent job for much of the game against Newell-Fonda’s pressing, trapping defense, which forced 36 turnovers in a first-round victory over Springville. But the Lynx turned it over five times at the end and Newell-Fonda capitalized.
After six lead changes in the second half, Newell-Fonda edged ahead 39-38 when Hinders made two free throws with 3:50 left. She forced a turnover a minute or so later and Sievers splashed a 3 from the right corner for a 42-38 lead with 2:21 to play.
Newell-Fonda got the ball back by intercepting an inbounds pass at the North Linn end and, with the shot clock about to expire, Sievers buried another 3 to make it 45-38 with 1:04 to go.
A Sievers free throw and a Hinders layup finished it off and the Mustangs were back in the state finals.
North Linn took its last lead at 38-37 on Beuter’s layup with 6:23 left. The Lynx did not score again. They finished with 17 turnovers and made only one of nine shots in the fourth quarter, negating their 35-28 rebounding advantage.
