Basketball teams with similar records faced each other Friday night at Saydel High School in Des Moines when the Greene County Rams visited the Eagles. The Heart of Iowa Activities Conference girl/boy doubleheader saw the Eagles win the girls’ game 41-31, and the Rams win the boys’ contest 62-61. Both ends of the twin bill were broadcast on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.
The Rams led 5-2 in the girls’ contest before the Eagles went on a 25-5 run the rest of the half and the home team led 27-10 at intermission. It quickly went to 29-10 early in the third quarter before the Rams started chipping away at the deficit. The closest Coach Tori Ogden’s team came was eight points at 35-27. Greene County is alone in last place in the HOIC at 0-7, has lost its last nine games and is 1-9 overall. Saydel won for the first time this season and is 1-9, 1-6. Brianna Habben had 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Rams. Emma Hoyle had eight points, all in the second half before fouling out with 5:40 left in the game. Saydel had 14 points from freshman Paige Rummans, 10 more than her average entering the contest.
Coach Chris Nelson’s boys improved to 5-2 in the conference and 5-5 overall with the one point road win, despite playing without leading scorer Richard Daugherty, who missed the game due to illness. Max Riley picked up the scoring slack with 17 points in his second game of the season after missing the first eight recovering from a broken fibula. Bryce Stalder scored 21 points and Jesse Miller had 11, all in the first quarter. Stalder scored on a layup with less than 25 seconds remaining to put the Rams up 62-61. The Eagles had more than one opportunity to take the lead including inbounding the ball with five seconds left, but the potential game-winning shot was off the mark and the Rams snapped a three-game losing streak while preventing the Eagles from winning their third in a row. Saydel fell to 3-6 overall and 2-5 in the conference after getting 18 points from Judd Roberts and 17 by Mason Hicks.
The Rams are home in Jefferson at the high school this Monday with Panorama in a girl/boy non-conference doubleheader on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com. Coverage starts at 5:45 p.m. with the girls playing at 6 ‘clock and the boys to follow.