The Indianola girls basketball team upset #8 Norwalk Friday night in a Little Hawkeye Conference matchup at home 55-51 despite a career milestone night from junior Bailey Birmingham, while the Warriors boys scored 27 first quarter points as they won in a blowout 73-44 as heard live on 94.3 KNIA.

The Indianola girls fell behind 7-0 to start the first quarter, but then recovered with a 16-2 run to take a lead they wouldn’t give up despite multiple Norwalk runs to keep the game close. Indianola held brief leads at the end of the first 16-11 and 30-24 at halftime. Indianola pushed the lead up as high as nine in the third quarter, but Bailey Birmingham led Norwalk on a run that included a buzzer-beating three to make it a 38-35 game going into the final frame. Indianola shot 10/13 from the free throw line in the fourth and Alexa Guyer would get an and-one bucket with less than a minute to go to put Indianola up seven, but Birmingham hit back-to-back three point shots to get the game back to a possession lead, but more free throws sealed the victory for the Indians.

Indians Senior Brynn Bishop said after the game this was a team victory in many different ways.

“To see everyone show up and play with so much heart, it was just so awesome to see. To have the underclassmen step up into their positions and roles was incredible. And to be leaders. I can’t even explain it, it was such a fun night, especially on senior night.”

Guyer scored 24 points to lead Indianola, while Birmingham dropped 35 and crossed the 1,000 career point mark for Norwalk in the contest.

The boys contest was all Norwalk from the start, leading 27-7 after the first with stifling defense and an efficient offense, then grew the lead to 24 with an equally dominant second quarter to lead 41-17 at the break. After Indianola slightly lowered the gap in the third, Norwalk would cruise to a victory in the fourth and empty the bench. Redek Born had a dominant 29 points to lead Norwalk, while Easton McGraw led Indianola with 12.

Head coach Aaron Pelzer said the Warriors took nearly a month off due to weather cancellations, but he’s happy with how they’ve looked back on the court building a three-game streak over the last week.

“When you have that long of a break you don’t really know what to expect. I’m happy with where we are. We were just talking in the locker room, three weeks from last night and our regular season is over. Everything is going to happen in a hurry from here on out, which is why we need to prepare, practice, and play with a little bit more of a sense of urgency than we had to over break.”

The Indianola teams will next play Monday at Pella, while the Norwalk teams don’t have a long layoff, they host Ames this afternoon.