(Neola, IA) — The Underwood Eagles and the Tri-Center Trojans fought a hard battle in a Western Iowa Conference doubleheader, with the Underwood girls cruising past the Trojans 38-26 followed by the Tri-Center boys getting past the Eagles 58-53.
In the girls game, turnovers were the difference when it came to the first half, where Underwood took advantage of a Trojans team that was struggling to move the ball. The Trojans, however, gained a slight boost to their confidence when Lauren Harder sunk a buzzer beater from the logo to head into the half down 22-15. The game was back-and-forth in the third quarter with most of the offensive production for the Trojans coming from the Harder sisters, but the Eagles began to run away with contributions from Ruby Irwin and Lilli Robertson ending the third quarter 32-21. In the fourth, a 4-0 run by Tri-Center to start off the quarter kept them within fighting distance, but ultimately couldn’t get much more offense going with time running out. A putback by Kayley Ambrose to make the score 38-26 was enough to seal the deal for the Underwood Eagles.
The Eagles Remi Paulson was a standout player in the matchup, who had six points in the first quarter to establish Underwood’s post game. Paulson says the team stepped up when it mattered:
The Underwood girls get the win to make their record 2-6, the Tri-Center girls fall to 3-4.
In the boys game, both teams went back-and-forth for the majority of the game, with Underwood seeing success down low with Garrett Luett and Landon Wigington, the former notching 18 points in the contest. For Tri-Center, beyond-the-arc shooting was working well to start off the game with Cael Witt nailing a wing three-ball to take the lead 7-6. AJ Harder also notched a key shot from downtown later in the quarter to increase the Trojans lead 12-8. Underwood was also seeing success from three-point land with Nolan Baker sinking one to take the lead late in the quarter 17-16.
In the second quarter, both teams slowed down considerably with the score at half being 27-23 Tri-Center. The Trojans were the first to get on the board in the second half with an easy lay-up by Witt on a backdoor cut. After Underwood answered with two points from Connor Brummett, Witt was once again left open on the right corner this time for three points. Following the three, both teams went back-and-forth once again throughout the game with Underwood still getting solid production from down low, but Tri-Center’s Harder was an offensive force that the Eagles couldn’t keep in check. Ultimately, Underwood would fall to the Trojans 58-53. When asked what was working for the team, Harder says physicality was the key to success:
The Tri-Center boys remain undefeated at 7-0 and the Underwood boys fall to 6-3.
