Nevada Journal sports round-up: Nevada boys get two wins, Arends wins two titles in girls wrestling

The Nevada boys basketball team won two out of three games and the Cub girls wrestling program saw Mackenzie Arends take first at two tournaments last week.

The Nevada boys won at Iowa Falls-Alden by a 63-56 score Dec. 5 then suffered a 79-56 loss at the hands of defending Heart of Iowa Conference champion Roland-Story Dec. 6 at the Nevada High School Field House. The Cubs bounced back with a 64-33 non-conference home win over West Marshall Friday as they concluded the week with a 4-1 overall record and 2-1 HOIC mark.

Arends scored two pins at Eagle Grove Dec. 10 and she also was 2-0 at the Valley Girls Wrestling Tournament Saturday in West Des Moines. The Nevada girls wrestling team tied Des Moines Public Schools for sixth out of 15 teams at Valley with 87 points.

Ames won the Valley tournament with 141 points.

The Nevada boys wrestling team placed fifth at the Knoxville Invitational Saturday with 96 points. Southeast Polk won with a score of 185.

The Cub boys crowned one champion and had another place second.

Nevada also dropped two dual meets against West Marshall and Prairie City-Monroe Dec. 8 at home. The Cubs fell to West Marshall by a 48-24 score and PCM by a 66-12 margin in falling to 0-3 on the season.

The Nevada girls basketball team came up short against IFA, Roland-Story and Class 3A No. 3 West Marshall last week in falling to 1-5 on the season and 1-2 in the HOIC. The Cub girls suffered a 50-27 loss at Iowa Falls, a 32-28 home setback against Roland-Story and a 56-37 home loss to West Marshall.

Statistics for the West Marshall game were not available at press deadline.

The Colo-NESCO boys basketball team went 1-2 last week in going to 2-3 on the season and 1-2 in the Iowa Star Conference South Division. The Royals crushed Meskwaki on the road Dec. 6, 78-8, and lost to North Tama at home Friday, 55-34, and at West Marshall Saturday, 36-27.

Statistics for the North Tama and West Marshall games were not available at press deadline.

The Colo-NESCO girls picked up their first victory of the season Dec. 6 with a 37-34 triumph at Meskwaki. The Royals suffered a 33-26 loss to North Tama Friday in going to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the ISC South.

Here is what we learned from last week's Journal-area competition.

Nevada boys rebound strong from Roland-Story loss

Nevada used a strong fourth quarter to pull away from Iowa Falls-Alden to start the week.

The Cubs outscored the Cadets 21-12 in the fourth quarter to pull off the victory. They outrebounded IFA, 38-26, and held them to 38.9% shooting from the field

Carson Rhodes dominated inside with 15 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks and Kyle Kingsbury had 14 points, five rebounds and three assists. Alec Higgins added 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.

In the loss to Roland-Story the Cubs had no answers for the Norse backcourt of Isaiah Naylor and Jonovan Wilkinson. The duo combined for 52 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds and eight steals.

Nevada was outscored 22-8 in the second quarter to fall behind 32-16 at the half and couldn't stem the tide in the second half.

Jacob Khounsourath went for 22 points and John Nelson added 8 points, 10 rebounds and three assists and steals apiece. Higgins continued continued his great play, going for 14 points, six rebounds and two assists.

"Alec has done an outstanding job for us," Nevada coach Tyler Struck said. "He's been really consistent and what I'm most excited about is how consistent he's been on the defensive end. He's taken some pride in that. Jonovan had a great night, but I think Alec did a lot of good things on him. Offensively, he was able to drive against the zone and make some outside shots."

In the win over West Marshall the Cubs built a 31-16 lead at the half and cruised to victory. Nevada held the Trojans to 27.1% shooting and the Cubs were again tough on the boards in finishing with a 43-28 rebounding advantage.

Khounsourath had a tremendous game to lead the Cubs past the Trojans. He finished with 33 points and nine rebounds.

Nelson added 13 points and four rebounds, Higgins 9 points and 11 boards and Rhodes 2 points, five rebounds and three blocks.

McKenzie Arends dominates for Nevada girls wrestling

Arends had a great week for the Nevada girls wrestling team.

At Eagle Grove Arends pinned AGWSR's Kylie Williams in 58 seconds and Panorama's Lucy Knutter to finish first. At Valley, where official scoring was kept, she went 3-0 at 190 pounds to again place first and move her season record to 6-1.

Arends opened with a bye then pulled off a 1-0 decision over Martensdale St. Marys Breanna Ott. She won the championship match at Valley in another competitive battle, defeating Boone's Candence Heggen by a 6-0 decision.

Gracie Leslie took third at 135 for Nevada at Valley. Leslie pinned BGM's Halina Hershey in 5:14, lost by fall to Ballard's Noelle Boettger then came back with a pin over Ames' Lauryn Metcalf in 3:06 and Cedar Falls' Lainey Schreck in 2:32.

Mia Reichart placed fourth at 140 and Ashlyn Leslie (115), Dakota Hastings (125) and Grayce Coree (235) each took fifth and Miah Huff (110) finished sixth for Nevada at Valley.

At Eagle Grove the Leslie sisters each went 3-0 to take first, Reichart and Haley Jones went 2-1 to take second and Huff also came in runner-up with a 1-1 record.

Kaden Weber shines for Nevada boys wrestling team

Kaden Weber saw his first action of the season for the Nevada wrestling team and went 5-0 during week. That included placing first at 120 during the Knoxville Invite.

At Knoxville Weber pinned Southeast Polk's Carter Stovers in 2:11 and North Polk's Andrew Reed in 2:20 before pulling off a 7-2 decision over Knoxville's Marco Alejo. During the double-dual meet against West Marshall and PCM in Nevada Weber pinned West Marshall's Zachary Vawter in 3:27 at 120 and PCM's Charlie Sitzmann in 1:31 at 113.

Nate Anderson placed second for Nevada at Knoxville with a 3-1 record at 285. Anderson Fairfield's Kenneth Craig in 1:43 and North Polk's Nick Owen in 54 seconds, lost by fall to Southeast Polk's Tavian Collins and then scored another pin over Knoxville's Reagan Roberts in two minutes flat.

At the double-dual meet Anderson stuck West Marshall's Eduardo Plascensia in 1:22.

Isaac Williams (145) and Payton Mosinski (170) both placed third for Nevada at Knoxville.

Williams went 2-2, pinning Knoxville's Cael Watters in 1:14 and North Polk's Sawyer Smeltzer in 3:00. Mosinski was also 2-2, defeating Fairfield's Aiden Westercamp by fall in 1:39 and edging North Polk's Carter Van Brocklin by a 5-3 decision.

In the double-dual Williams pinned West Marshall's Wyatt Thompson in 58 seconds. Jackson Baker won by disqualification at 152 for Nevada's other win against the Trojans.

David Gonzalez earned the only other Cub victory besides Weber against PCM at the double-dual. Gonzalez pinned Jackson Overton in 3:27 at 120.

Nevada girls give Roland-Story a good fight

It was a rough week for the Nevada girls basketball team.

The Cubs only scored 16 points over the first three quarters in their loss to IFA. They had a rough night shooting, making only 19% of their field goals and just 2 of 11 free throws.

Avery Hinson had 6 points and rebounds apiece, Bridget Cahill 6 points, Kaleigh Groat 5 points and Isabelle Nelson 3 points and 13 rebounds.

Nevada pushed Roland-Story to the limit Dec. 6.

Nevada was down by 7 midway through the fourth quarter and came back to cut the deficit to 3 points with a chance to tie the game in the final minute.

A Cahill 3-pointer pulled Nevada within 30-28 and after a Kamryn Lande free throw with 58.8 seconds left put Roland-Story up 3, the Cubs still had a chance to tie on their next possession. But Cahill was just a little long on a 3-point attempt from 25 feet and Truesdell made a free throw with 12.3 seconds left to ice the game.

“Your defense is going to help you stay in games,” said Nevada coach Jordan Bentley. “Just keep grinding and get people opportunities with the ball. We had some kids come in and hit some big shots.”

Nevada was coming off a 50-27 loss at Iowa Falls-Alden the night before. It would've been easy for the Cubs to throw in the towel after falling behind 15-6 early Tuesday, but they toughed it out and made it a ball game.

“Compared to where we were at last night, this was a complete 180,” Bentley said. “I’ve got to tip my hat to our kids. They could’ve been in a completely different mindset, but they went out and they competed hard. We get those last two looks and get the ball to the girl we want to have the ball.”

Nelson had 11 points, six rebounds and one block and Emma Strottman 9 points and three assists for the Cubs against the Norse. Cahill and Hallee Schadt scored 3 points apiece and Reagan Davis pulled down 10 rebounds.

The Cub girls hung tough for a half against West Marshall, but they eventually wore down against the defending HOIC champions before coming up short.

Defense, rebounding get Royal girls their first victory

The Colo-NESCO girls overcame turnover problems to get past Meskwaki for their first win Dec. 6.

The Royals held Meskwaki to 24.5% shooting from the field. The they also posted a 47-26 rebounding advantage, which was just enough to overcome 29 turnovers.

Gemma Bower had a huge game for Colo-NESCO in the win. She posted a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds and added five steals and three assists.

Callie Kohlwes added 9 points and rebounds apiece plus three steals for the Royals. Jessica Duran finished with 7 points and five rebounds and Abigail Hostetler 4 points and five boards.

In the loss to North Tama the Royal girls were once again hurt by 29 turnovers, but this time they couldn't overcome the issue after shooting just 21.7% from the field. Bower finished with 7 points and rebounds apiece plus five steals, Kohlwes 6 points, eight rebounds and five assists, Duran 5 points and Hostetler and Kettwig 4 apiece.

Royal boys overwhelm Meskwaki

The Colo-NESCO boys basketball put Meskwaki away by the end of the first quarter.

The Royals led 28-0 after the first eight minutes and by halftime their lead was 49-4. Colo-NESCO shot 52.3% from the field and had 23 steals.

Gannon Short went for 20 points, four rebounds and three assists for Colo-NESCO in the win. Spencer Hansen had 16 points and six rebounds, assists and steals apiece, Lucas Frohwein delivered 14 points and four rebounds, Drew Banks tallied 8 points, three assists and four steals and Mark Bower finished with 8 points, six rebounds and three assists.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Nevada bounces back in boys basketball, Arends wins gold twice