Metro Sports Report

Kirkwood men knock off Black Hawk

MOLINE, Ill. - Doug Wilson, Tajen Ross and Chris King combined for 65  points Tuesday night as the Kirkwood Eagles dumped Black Hawk College, 93-83, in a non-conference ballgame.

Wilson scored 23 points, Ross tossed in 22 and King added 20 as the Eagles raised their record to 7-3.

This was Kirkwood's second victory over Black Hawk in two weeks, following a 94-69 verdict Nov. 21 in Cedar Rapids.

CJ Neville scored 22 points for Black Hawk.

Kirkwood was ranked 14th in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll, but the Eagles dropped out of the Top 20 in the first poll of the regular season this week.

Rushing joins IWSL for 2018

Another former all-state player has joined the Iowa Women's Softball League for the 2018 campaign.

Megan Rushing, who starred at West Des Moines Valley, has become the 22nd player to join the IWSL for next summer.

Rushing, an infielder, helped West Des Moines Valley place third at the Class 5A state tournament in 2015 as a senior.

Rushing played junior college softball at DMACC the last two seasons, where she belted 21 home runs and drove in 93 runs in two years. She  helped the Bears make two trips to the NJCAA Division II national  tournament and twice was named to the all-region teams.

Rushing is currently a junior at South Dakota University, which competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Summit League.

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Rushing plans to play in the new Central Division in the IWSL next summer, with games at Simpson College and the Iowa State University recreation field.

Rushing is the eighth player to enroll in the Central Division. Fourteen players have enrolled in the Eastern Division in Cedar Rapids.

Wilson leads No. 1 Eagles to tough victory

Tayana Wilson is usually the smallest player on the floor at 5-feet-4  and 118 pounds, but don't let her size fool you.

The sophomore from Country Club Hills, Ill., is a tough customer for the Kirkwood Eagles.

Wilson was clobbered by Iowa Western defenders on a pair of drives during the first five minutes of their game Saturday, but she bounced up both times and never said a word.

Instead, she got her revenge by playing a hard-nosed game in a 56-53 victory over the Reivers at Johnson Hall.

"Honestly, it makes me mad," Wilson said about being knocked around by Iowa Western. "It makes me want to push it down their throats even more.

"Yeah, they did kind of ding me up a little bit. It really made me mad."

The officials declined to call intentional fouls on either play, but it was pretty rough stuff.

Kirkwood Coach Kim Muhl talked to one of the officials about it, but he did not make a big fuss. After the second foul, Muhl took Wilson  out of the game for a few minutes to recuperate.

Arrington stars for No. 14 Eagles

A new star was born for the Kirkwood Eagles Saturday afternoon at Johnson Hall.

He's 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds and his name is Kyle Arrington, a giant of a young man from Council Bluffs.

Only time will tell if Arrington was a shooting star that lasts for a moment or whether he's a bright new star for the future, but he sure  looked good Saturday.

Arrington played the best game of his young college career with 21 points, 15 rebounds, four blocked shots and four assists to spark the  14th-ranked Eagles in an 85-48 victory over Morton College.

It was a stunning performance for the freshman, who had not played more than 10 minutes in a game all season and began the day averaging a modest 3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds.

And don't let the final score fool you. Kirkwood struggled in the  first half and trailed, 28-22, at halftime before Arrington and the  Eagles took flight in the second half.

Arrington collected six points and four rebounds in the first half, good enough for Coach Bryan Petersen to put his tallest player into the starting lineup for the second half.