Metro Sports Report

Xavier athletes sign on the dotted line

Seven Xavier High School athletes were honored in a ceremony at the school Wednesday afternoon as they finalized their plans to play  sports in college next year.

Four members of the Xavier football team that reached the semifinals of the Class 3A playoffs have picked their college so far.

Bryce Schulte will attend the University of Iowa, Maliki Wilson is headed to Wayne State in Nebraska, Max Johnson has picked Drake and Zach Barish will play at Saint Ambrose.

Three female student-athletes at Xavier also were honored Wednesday. Jess Callahan plans to play volleyball at Luther College, Hannah Helms will play softball at Coe and Addy Hoffman will play soccer at Truman State.

Like old times: Saints whip Tigers

The Xavier Saints dug a little deeper Tuesday night and played  basketball like they did in the Class 3A state tournament last year.

As far as the Saints are concerned, it was about time.

The Saints played their best game of the season and whipped Cedar  Falls, 70-60, in a spirited Mississippi Valley Conference contest in the Ron Thillen Gymnasium.

Max Techau was a beast for Xavier (6-9) with 22 points and 13  rebounds, but he was not alone as the Saints got important  contributions from lots of players against a quality opponent.

Matt Mims matched Techau with 22 points and ran the club superbly with  seven assists, Jackson Joens popped in 13 points, new starter Quinn  Schulte contributed seven points and helped "slow" Cedar Falls star AJ Green, and Nolan Butkowski nailed a pair of clutch 3-pointers.

The Saints also got some help from Gabe Lux, Max Johnson and Bryce  Schulte off the bench, even though they did not score.

Green, a superb 6-foot-3 junior who leads the Mississippi Valley  conference in scoring, finished with 33 points, but the Saints got  some key stops against him when it really mattered in the fourth  quarter, and the rest of the Tigers combined for only 27 points.

King sparks No. 17 Eagles by Tritons

The five members of the Kirkwood men's basketball team who had to  serve a two-game suspension for a minor infraction earlier this month  were anxious to get rolling again Saturday.

It took 20 minutes to get fully in gear, but the 17th-ranked Eagles  eased their pain by whipping Iowa Central, 101-72, in a conference  game at Johnson Hall.

Chris King, Byron Harp, Miles Wentzien, Ethan Meeker and Elijah Henry  were suspended by the National Junior College Athletic Association for  two games for their roles in an incident against Ellsworth 10 days  ago, but they were back Saturday.

King popped in six 3-pointers, scored 26 points and dished out seven  assists as Kirkwood raised its record to 16-4 overall.

The Eagles led by only one point at halftime, 44-43, but they clamped  down on defense in the second half and quickly pulled away. Kirkwood  shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half and clobbered Iowa  Central in bench points for the game, 41-2.

The Eagles had trouble guarding Tray Croft and Prince Moss in the  first half, but the second half was an entirely different story. Croft  and Moss combined to score 56 of the visitor's 72 points, but most of  that damage occurred in the first half.

King said the difference in the second half was simple.

"Just guarding the ball with passion," he said. "The first half he  (Croft) was scoring because everybody wasn't buying in and trying to  help each other out. But the second half we really got back to what we  usually do."

'Shaq' helps No. 1 Eagles go 21-0

Kirkwood sophomore Shaneequah Watkins has a beautiful first name, but  she's reluctantly grown to accept a lot of people calling her Shaq.

She's a lanky basketball player at 5-foot-8, but there's absolutely no resemblance in any way, shape or form to former NBA star Shaquille  O'Neal, the original Shaq at 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds.

It's a good basketball nickname, but not something Watkins has always embraced.

"At first I was a little bit disgusted, because I'm not this big guy,  I'm not a post player and I make my free throws, for the most part,"  she said Saturday. "After the years it kind of stuck."

Watkins is one of the most versatile players on the top-ranked  Kirkwood women's basketball team, which raised its record to a perfect  21-0 Saturday afternoon with an 86-29 cakewalk past Iowa Central in a  conference game at Johnson Hall.

Watkins finished with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and one  steal in a typically well-rounded game and she's been stuffing the  stat sheet all season for the Eagles.

By now, she's grown accustomed to Kirkwood Coach Kim Muhl and a lot of  other people calling her Shaq.

"I got Shaq from my high school coach when I was coming from eighth  grade to freshman year and I would play jayvee or varsity in the  summer," she explained. "He couldn't pronounce my name and he said  Shaquilla or something and so it became Shaq. And that's how I ended  up with that."