North Polk swept a Heart of Iowa Activities Conference basketball doubleheader Friday night from the Greene County teams in Alleman. The action was heard on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.
The Comets’ girls are ranked first in Class 3A and they rolled to an 85-16 victory to improve to 3-0 in conference play and 4-2 overall. The Rams fell to 0-3, 0-5. NP race out to a 24-0 first quarter lead and never looked back. Junior Maggie Phipps hit five three-point goals in the opening stanza and scored 23 of her game high 25 points in the first eight minutes. Senior Jaedon Murphy added 15 points. NP had a 57-7 lead at halftime and the second half was played with a continuous clock under the 35-poin margin rule. The Comets had been struggling from the three point line, but hit 10 of the long range buckets vs. the Rams. Junior Sadie Wilson had six points for Greene County, all in the fourth quarter.
The boys’ game saw the Rams lead by 11 points in the second quarter, but a run by the Comets closed the gap to a single point at halftime, 37-36. The teams exchanged leads through the third quarter with Greene County still ahead heading into the final period, but a 27-9 NP scoring advantage in the fourth gave them their first win of the season and improved the Comets to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the HOIAC. The Rams fell to 1-4, 0-3. Sophomore Jevan Sullivan entered the game with a scoring average of 21 points per game. He had 22 at halftime and finished with 36. NP had been a combined 10 for 25 from the foul line in their first three games, but went 18 of 28 vs. the Rams.
Senior Carter Morton had 29 points for Greene County including making 10 of 11 free throw attempts. Morton had made 26 straight free throws to begin the season and his first nine on Friday night before he finally missed one. Morton fouled out late in the game. He had just three points in the fourth quarter and no free throw attempts in the last period. Senior Caden Lowmiller and junior Zach Goff each scored 10 points for the Rams. Free throw shooting has been a strong point and the Rams were 14 of 18 through three quarters, but zero for four from the line in the fourth.
Greene County plays at home twice next week in the middle school gym in Jefferson to close out the December portion of the schedule. The Rams host PCM (Monroe) on Dec. 17, then are home with Roland-Story (Story City) on Dec. 20. Both will be broadcast on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com with coverage at 5:45 p.m., the girls playing at 6 p.m. and the boys to follow