WEST DES MOINES - Dowling Catholic used a balanced attack to defeat the Xavier Saints, 64-56, in a battle of ranked boys basketball teams in West Des Moines Saturday.

Cole Scieszinski and Ted Brown led Dowling with 16 points apiece. Joey Kern scored 10 points for the Maroons, while Sam Ingoli and Stevie Sarcone had nine points apiece.

Mitchell Burger drilled five 3-pointers and popped in 24 points for Xavier. Matt Mims scored 15 points for the Saints and Max Techau had 12, but the rest of the club combined for only five points.

Dowling is ranked No. 7 in Class 4A while Xavier is ranked No. 4 in Class 3A. The outcome left both clubs with 9-2 records.

XAVIER (56): Burns 0 0-0 0, Burger 9 1-1 24, Mims 6 2-4 15, Butkowski 0 1-2 1, Fettkether 0 0-0 0, Whitten 0 0-0 0, Joens 0 1-2 1, Demplewolf 0 0-0 0, Stulken 1 0-1 3, Schulte 0 0-0 0, Houtakker 0 0-0 0, Techau 4 2-2 12, Johnson 0 0-1 0. Totals 20 7-13 56.

DOWLING (64): Scieszinski 5 4-7 16, Olson 0 0-0 0, Dougherty 2 0-0 4, Kern 3 2-2 10, Eastman 0 0-0 0, Ingoli 2 4-5 9, Sarcone 4 1-2 9, Brown 8 0-1 16. Totals 24 11-17 64.

Halftime - Dowling 31, Xavier 25. 3-point goals - Xavier 9 (Burger 5,

Techau 2, Mims 1, Stulken 1), Dowling 5 (Scieszinski 2, Kern 2, Ingoli 1).