Second-half defense carries Wolves past Lo-Ma girls

IKM-Manning advances to regional semifinals

 MANNING (Feb. 12) -- On a night when the ball wasn’t always going in the basket, the IKM-Manning girls relied on strong defense to outlast a familiar rival.
 Combining a tweak of their full court press with Emily Kerkhoff’s tenacious lock-down ‘D’ on Logan-Magnolia standout Kylie Morrison, the Wolves erased a seven-point third-quarter deficit and held the Panthers to six points in the last nine-plus minutes to win Tuesday’s Class 2A, Region 8 quarterfinal, 44-39.
 IKM-M and Lo-Ma have now ended each other’s season in three straight barn burners. The Wolves won a regional semifinal in double overtime last year and the Panthers won an overtime quarterfinal game in 2017. They also split a pair of Western Iowa Conference games earlier this season.
 With the victory, IKM-Manning (17-4) advances to Friday’s 7:00 p.m. regional semifinal at Denison, where it will take on Woodbury Central (18-4). Logan-Magnolia finished 13-9 overall.
 “They’re going to give everything they have and we’re going to give everything we have and hopefully that’s enough,” said IKM-M coach Gene Rasmussen of the Lo-Ma rivalry.
 “You can never count them out. They’re going to come at you. They’re going to make runs. They’re going to play hard. I was just really proud of these girls for never giving up. That’s one thing about this group - they really battle the whole 32 minutes."
 In a first half featuring four ties and six lead changes, the Wolves went to the locker room clinging to a 22-21 advantage but started the third quarter slowly as the Panthers scored the first eight points, including two Emilie Thompson three-pointers.
 IKM-Manning still trailed 33-26 following a Morrison jump shot with less than two minutes left in the third, but the Wolves would tally 11 unanswered points over the next seven minutes.
 After a Morrison three made it a one-point game, the Wolves spent the last 2:39 shooting free throws and continuing to play solid defense. They made 7-of-14 foul shots down the stretch to hold on, hitting one out of two on seven consecutive trips to the line.
 Gabby Cadwell led the Wolves with 16 points and five steals while grabbing eight boards. Caitlin Muhlbauer added nine points, Nicole Hanson hit two first-half threes for her six points, Wegner and Ahrenholtz both scored five and Kerkhoff had three.

 
 

 

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