Norwalk senior Bailey Birmingham has been to the free throw line more than 500 times in her high school career, making 389 foul shots. So perhaps it was fitting that Birmingham’s latest milestone happened at the charity stripe.
Birmingham’s two first-quarter free throws put her in elite company on Friday night at Pella, giving her 1,500 career points as a Warrior girls basketball standout. She is just the third player in program history to surpass the 1,500 mark, joining Kelsey Cermak (1,751) and Jill Martin (1,628).
Birmingham finished the night with 12 points as the Class 4A sixth-ranked Warriors defeated the 10th-ranked Dutch 62-48 for a season sweep. Pella won the boys contest 66-46 to split the season series with Norwalk. Both games were streamed live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3).
Norwalk girls head coach Joe Sigrist tells KNIA Sports that scoring 1,500 points is a special accomplishment for Birmingham. “There’s only about 200 girls in the history of Iowa high school girls basketball – which has a storied history – that have gotten to 1,500 points,” he said. “That means she has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this program for four years, and I’m just super happy for her because she’s a tremendous worker, a tremendous leader for us, and it couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
The Norwalk girls shook off a slow start against Pella’s box-and-one defense on Bailey Birmingham. They trailed multiple times during the first one and a half quarters before going into the half with a 27-19 lead. Pella scored 11 straight points to pull within 38-34 in the third, but the Warriors’ torrid outside shooting against a triangle-and-two allowed them to pull away. Payton Travis made five second-half 3-pointers and tied freshman Braylyn Birmingham for the team lead with 15 points. Hannah Overholser hit two second-half treys and matched Bailey Birmingham with 12 points.
The boys game was all Pella. The Dutch raced out to an 11-2 lead and held the Warriors in single digits until late in the first half. Trailing 45-20 in the third quarter, Norwalk heated up from beyond the arc and cut the margin to 12 points but could not draw any closer. Jack McGuire had a huge game for Pella with 23 points. Tim Koerselman led the Warriors with 14 points while Kaleb Foltz and Jack Larson both scored nine. Koerselman and Larson combined for seven of the team’s 10 made 3-pointers.
The Norwalk girls are now 15-1 overall and 6-1 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. The boys are 6-7 and 4-3, respectively. The Warriors host Pella Christian on Tuesday night.