The Norwalk basketball teams both took care of the business at hand Friday night with road wins over Oskaloosa. The Warrior girls overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to win 51-41, wrapping up second place in the Little Hawkeye Conference standings. The Warrior boys prevailed 75-39 to split this year’s Little Hawkeye championship with Dallas Center-Grimes. Both games were carried live on 94.3 KNIA and KNIA3.
Led by 21 first-half points from senior guard Redek Born, the Norwalk boys raced out to a 46-21 halftime advantage and continued to pull away in the second half. Born finished with 31, senior Aidan Harder scored nine and seven other Warriors added at least four. The Warriors improved to 15-3 overall and finished 11-1 in conference play, tied with DC-G for the LHC crown.
Third-year Norwalk head coach Aaron Pelzer tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that a conference title wasn’t talked about much during the season, but it was a personal goal for him. Pelzer says that winning even a share of a league as respected as the Little Hawkeye is a big accomplishment. “I’m proud of these guys,” he said. “They’ve bought into what we’re doing, we’re playing hard. We’re bringing (our toughness) with us every night. Those are the things that I expect out of them and they’re doing a really good job with that. They’re a fun group to coach and I hope to be coaching them a couple more weeks.”
The Norwalk girls had a little bit tougher challenge on Friday night. They trailed Oskaloosa 21-11 early in the second quarter, but allowed only 20 points the rest of the way and overcame an off shooting night to win by 10. One year after finishing 6-16 overall, the Warrior girls closed out the regular season at 17-4 and placed second in the Little Hawkeye with a 9-3 record.
First-year head coach Joe Sigrist tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that he is very proud of the team’s regular season accomplishments and he is optimistic about the Warriors’ prospects for success in postseason play.
State scoring leader Bailey Birmingham did not make a two-point field goal at Osky, but hit three 3-pointers in each half and made 7-of-10 free throws to score a team-high 25 points for Norwalk. Braelyn Clark added 15 points and Ava Carlson scored eight. Oskaloosa standout Dasia Foster was a force in the paint and finished with a game-high 29 points.
The Norwalk girls will have more than a week off before hosting Carlisle or ADM in a Class 4A regional semifinal on Saturday, February 17. The Norwalk boys still have three regular-season games to play, starting with Monday night’s game at Ankeny.
BOWLING
The Norwalk girls bowlers placed seventh out of 10 teams at Friday’s Two Rivers Conference Tournament, held at Newton’s Cardinal Lanes. The Warriors knocked down 1,936 total pins, trailing first-place Ballard by 414. The Norwalk boys compete in today’s Two Rivers Conference Tournament at 9:00 a.m., also at Newton.