The #1 ranked 23-0 Indianola girls make their third straight trip to Wells Fargo Arena today when they face #8 Johnston in a Class 5A Quarterfinal at 1:30 this afternoon.

The Past two seasons the Indians were one and out in the tournament suffering lopsided losses, but this year the “Fabulous 10” as they’ve nicknamed themselves, have plans to bring home a state title. Senior Haley Vesey says that’s been their focus since day one of practice: “The beginning of our first practice we decided we’re gonna win state, That’s our goal and we need to work as hard as we can, we need to have enthusiasm, energy and great teamwork and that’s what we’ve done so far”

Today’s game will feature two of the top post players in the country going head to head as Indianola’s Grace Berg, a Junior, who averages 20 points and 10 rebounds per game and etched her name in Indianola sports history becoming the school’s all time scoring leader last week, battles Johnston Senior Taryn Knuth, who averages 23 points, and 13 rebounds per game and has 80 blocks on the season. Indianola Head Coach Bert Hansen says they bring two different styles of play which makes it even more intriguing: “They both bring a little different style to the game, Grace slashes to the basket and she’s really hard to stop off the dribble, Taryn is really hard to stop in the low post, she’s so tall and gets to the basket so well from the block area that it’s really hard to stop her, So two very talented players, two different styles, Grace did fine with her the first time and we’ll see how it goes today”

Hansen feels confident his girls are focused and ready and have learned from the past two years but he says at the state tournament you have to be ready for anything and everything and can’t afford letdowns or mistakes. Indianola beat Johnston in December 71-64 in their only meeting this season. Berg had 28 points while Maggie McGraw added 25 and 11 rebounds Knuth scored 21 for Johnston with 10 rebounds.

You can hear today’s game with Jamie Brockman and Rick Wilson live on AM 1320 or 95.3 FM KNIA , on the KNIA stream at kniakrls.com or on the KNIA mobile app with pregame at 1pm and tip off scheduled for 1:30pm from Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

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