Washington High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

No.2 Ankeny too tough for Warriors, 66-58

Wed - 27 Feb Written by Jim Ecker

DES MOINES - Ankeny sophomore Jaali Winters is a splendid 6-foot-3 athlete who can jump up and touch the rim and smile at the crowd while she's scoring baskets.

One of these days she might even dunk the ball.

"I've thought about it," she said Wednesday after putting on a show at the Class 5A state basketball tournament at the Wells Fargo Arena.

Winters scored 17 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked seven shots to help the second-ranked Hawkettes dunk Cedar Rapids Washington, 66-58, in the quarterfinals.

Share

Defense looms large for Saints, Warriors at state

Tue - 26 Feb Written by Jim Ecker

Tom Lilly was not fond of playing defense when he was a senior at Regis High School 30 years ago, which is kind of ironic.

These days, Lilly prides himself on having strong defensive clubs at Xavier High School and it's one of the reasons the Saints have made the state basketball tournament for the 10th time in 15 years under his guidance.

When Lilly was a junior at Regis, his main assignment in practice was to play tough defense to help get the senior-laden squad ready for games. All of the juniors had that assignment as members of the junior varsity, as he recalls.

Share

For Wash girls, it's 'us against the world'

Sun - 24 Feb Written by Jim Ecker

The Cedar Rapids Washington girls basketball team enjoyed a happy ride home from Ankeny last Tuesday night after they upset No.6 Waukee in the regional finals to claim a spot in the Class 5A state tournament.

"It was loud," senior Abby Herb reported. "We were happy and really excited."

The Warriors overcame severe foul problems, a technical foul and a two-hour bus ride to knock off Waukee, which only had to travel from one side of the Des Moines suburbs to another for the pivotal game against Washington.

Share

Warriors fall short to No.3 Bobcats

Fri - 22 Feb Written by Jim Ecker

EPWORTH - Cedar Rapids Washington's improbable dream of reaching the state basketball tournament just a year after suffering through a winless campaign came to an end Friday night.

The Warriors went down to defeat, but they went down fighting.

Washington overcame one big deficit Friday but could not overcome another and lost to No.3 Western Dubuque, 63-52, in the Class 4A substate semifinals.

Share

Dani Franklin leads all-Metro hoops

Wed - 20 Feb Written by Metro Sports Report

Dani Franklin of Cedar Rapids Washington added to her postseason honors Wednesday afternoon when she was selected as the Athlete of the Year on the all-Metro girls basketball team.

Franklin also was named the Athlete of the Year in the Valley Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference on Wednesday.

Steph Botkin of Kennedy, Mykaela Brandt of Linn-Mar, Madison Dellamuth of Prairie, Abbie Herb of Washington, Maddie Koolbeck of Jefferson and Alisa Weiland of Prairie joined Franklin as first team all-Metro selections.

Steve Doser of Prairie was named the Coach of the Year.

Share