Waukee Northwest may be young, but the Wolves can play and now they’re headed to the Class 5A semifinals in their very first state tournament appearance.
Starting four sophomores and with no seniors on the roster, Northwest pulled ahead of Cedar Rapids Prairie in the third quarter and fought off the Hawks the rest of the way for a well-earned 63-56 victory.
It was the final game of the 5A quarterfinal round and the higher seed prevailed in each. Third-seeded Northwest (19-4) will continue its season against second-seeded Dowling Catholic at 11:45 a.m. Thursday. They met twice in the regular season and Dowling won both, 55-42 and 83-50.
Junior Vana Bilic tormented Prairie throughout the game with bullish drives to the basket and led Northwest with 24 points. She made 9 of her16 shots, including two 3-pointers, and sank all four of her free throws.
Freshman Sadie McCann went 4-for-5 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers in adding 16 points for the Wolves and sophomore Romey Croatt chipped in with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
KeaOnna Worley, a fearless 5-foot-3 sophomore, led Prairie (20-5) with 23 points, getting most of her seven field goals on drives to the basket, often getting fouled on the way. She went 8-for-11 at the line, grabbed five rebounds and handed out three assists.
Emily Larsen knocked down five 3-pointers in adding 19 points for the Hawks before fouling out with 2:14 left. Her perimeter shooting helped spread the Northwest defense and open lanes for Worley. Despite Northwest’s size advantage, the Hawks stayed with the Wolves on the boardsand were outrebounded just 34-33.
Prairie’s Brynlie Hadenfeldt led all rebounders in the game with 10 and teammate Asia Beale collected nine.
Prairie scored the game’s first five points and except for a couple of brief ties, led throughout the first half. The Hawks were up by as many as six and led 23-20 at halftime after Beale converted a three-point play in the final seconds.
Northwest then scored the first seven points of the second half and never trailed again. It was 41-36 after three quarters and a 9-0 burst stretched the lead to 50-40 with 5:28 left.
Prairie clawed back to cut the lead to 56-50, but Bilic answered for Northwest, dropping in two free throws and banking in a driving shot to get the lead back to 10 with 1:06 remaining. The Wolves made only 3 of 8 free throws the rest of the way, but that was enough to survive and advance.
The Hawks made it to state in their first season under coach Bruce Dall, who guided Dike-New Harford to the last four Class 2A championships. Prairie is the fourth school Dall has taken to the state tournament, a feat achieved by only one other Iowa coach.
