The Norwalk basketball teams swept a varsity doubleheader against Des Moines Lincoln on Tuesday night in games heard live on 94.3 KNIA and KNIA3. 

The Class 4A seventh-ranked Warrior girls bolted out to a 20-0 lead after one quarter and crushed the Railsplitters by a final score of 83-10, improving to 9-1 overall. The Warrior boys, now 6-2, led just 27-22 in the third quarter before taking control with a 17-1 run and winning 55-32.

The girls game quickly turned into a rout as Norwalk’s pressure defense created a myriad of Lincoln turnovers that led to easy transition buckets. The Warriors also knocked down eight 3-pointers and made 20 out of 25 free throws. Bailey Birmingham scored all 21 of her points in the first half, Ava Carlson scored 13 points and freshman Payton Travis added 12, hitting two first-half treys and making her final six foul shots of the night. Pearl Brown and Braelyn Clark chipped in eight points each while Avery Thomas and Paige Nichols both added six.

The Norwalk boys actually trailed 11-10 after one quarter, then used a blitzkrieg of Aidan Harder 3-pointers to take the lead for good. Harder drained five treys in the first half alone and added two more in the second half, including a buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter off a cross-court inbounds pass from Grady Sigrist. Harder’s shot came during the middle of a game-changing 24-4 Warrior surge.

Harder led all scorers with 21 points (all on 3-pointers), Sigrist and Cameron Thomas both tallied nine points and Redek Born added eight – all in the second half. Sullivan Suarez-Quilty hit three long-range shots for Lincoln and scored a team-high nine points.

Next up for Norwalk is a big girl-boy doubleheader at Dallas Center-Grimes on Thursday night, starting at 6:15. Both Warrior teams are 3-0 in Little Hawkeye Conference play; both Mustang squads are 2-0 in the LHC.