It’s not every year the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference has a team playing for a basketball State Championship, but that’s the case with the top ranked North Polk (Alleman) girls. Coach Clint Albertson’s team cruised past Waukon 65-49 in the Thursday afternoon semifinals. The Heart of Iowa Champions jumped out to an early lead and was led by the 1-2 punch of junior Jaedon Murphy and sophomore Maggie Phipps with 22 and 20 points, respectively.

It will be a battle of the top two seeded teams at 8 o’clock tonight when North Polk meets second seeded Center Point-Urbana for the 3A title at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The Stormin’ Pointers rolled over Des Moines Christian from the West Central Activities Conference in the other semifinal by a 55-29 final. Both NP and CP-U are 23-2 enter tonight’s title contest.

Greene County suffered a pair of one-sided losses during the HOIAC campaign to the Comets.