Xavier High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Saints race into 3A substate finals

The question facing the Xavier boys coaching staff before their Class 3A district final Thursday night with underdog Solon was whether the Spartans would try to hold down the score or stick with their normal up-tempo offense.

You could almost see the Saints players’ eyes light up when it became clear from the start that the quick and aggressive guys from Solon were going to try to match them point for point.

So it was run-and-gun all night for both teams up and down the Kennedy gym.

As well as they played, though, the Spartans were no match for the hot-shooting Saints in their near-perfect 88-57 runaway rout.

“In our offense, we run quite a few set plays,” noted senior swingman Calvin Winker, one of four Saints in double figures. "And tonight, we scored on about every single one of them. We were really clicking.”

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Saints draw Harlan in 2013 rematch at state tournament

DEWITT - The Harlan Cyclones must have winced Tuesday night when they saw who they drew in the opening round of the Class 4A girls state basketball tournament next week.

Oh, no! It's those pesky Saints from Xavier again.

Xavier upset Harlan, 53-52, in the championship game of the Class 4A state tournament in 2013. Now they'll meet again on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines in a rematch.

The Saints earned another trip to Des Moines by toppling Davenport North, 65-52, in the regional finals Tuesday night in DeWitt. The Saints did not reach the state tournament last year, falling on a buzzer-beater to North Scott in the regional finals.

"Emotions were really high," Xavier senior Lizzy Bailey told the Quad City Times. "Last year was a heart-breaking loss, so we had that in the back of our minds when we came out today. We just came out and played tough."

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Xavier boys second in 2A bowling

DES MOINES - Led by Caleb Miller's third-place individual finish, the Xavier boys bowling team finished second behind champion Fort Dodge in the Class 2A bowling tournament on Tuesday at Plaza Lanes in Des Moines.

Fort Dodge scored 3,223 to take the championship. The Saints finished at 3,011, just ahead of Council Bluffs Lewis Central (3,000).

Miller, a senior, had a 204 in his first game and came back with a 255, the second-best single-game score of the tournament to finish at 459. Fort Dodge senior Alex Markov won the individual title with a 480. Oelwein's Jaguar Espe was second at 468.

In the girls tournament, Marion junior Bre Smith was part of the race for the individual title. She placed ninth with a score of 201+193=394. Keokuk won the team title with a 2,971 total. Fort Dodge (2,807) was second and Western Dubuque (2,796) took third.

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Saints clicking at right time of year

It took a long time for the Xavier Saints to rebuild their basketball team this season with Prairie transfer Michael Mims added to the mix in the backcourt.

From the look of things now, they've finally figured it out and could be on a roll toward the Class 3A state tournament.

Mims popped in four 3-pointers Monday night and scored 21 points as the Saints belted Benton Community, 74-44, in the semifinals of the district tournament at Marion High School.

The Saints had an 8-8 record a month ago, but they've won six straight games now and will take a 14-8 mark into the district finals Thursday night against Solon, a 42-32 winner over Marion, at Kennedy.

Mims was an all-conference point guard at Prairie last year, but Xavier already had an accomplished point guard on the club with Mitchell Burger, along with two all-conference wings in Adam McDermott and Calvin Winker.

"It took some time, because last year Mitchell dominated the ball and played point for us," said Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann. "It took awhile, I think, for those two to get on the same page and jell and share the ball.

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