The Roland-Story Norsemen girls and boys basketball teams opened up the home slate on Thursday night, as they hosted their long-time rivals in the Gilbert Tigers at Roland-Story High School. The games were moved to Thursday from Tuesday due to poor road conditions on Tuesday.
Roland-Story’s girls opened the night against a Gilbert team that is currently ranked #11 in Class 4A, per the IGHSAU and the first half was a defensive slugfest, with Gilbert holding an 18-11 halftime lead. The Tigers built their lead to as much as 13, but the Norsemen were able to cut the lead 7 at the end of the 3rd quarter. However, the Tigers used their stifling press to pull away in the 4th quarter for a 51-33 victory. Sydney Lynch led Gilbert with 14 points, while Madi Bauer led Roland-Story with 10 points as the Jewell Market Player of the Game.
The boys game followed with the match up of the Norsemen boys, ranked #2 in PrepHoops Iowa’s preseason poll in 2A, against a Gilbert team looking to bounce back from a 5-17 mark in 2021-22. Roland-Story was without Jonovan Wilkinson on Thursday, but senior Isaiah Naylor made up the difference, as he led all scorers with 22 points, 12 of them coming in the first quarter to put Roland-Story ahead 17-8. The Norsemen continued to build on their lead, as it ballooned to 34-12 at halftime, and 50-22 by the end of the third quarter. Gilbert was able to string a run in the 4th quarter, but it was too little, too late as Roland-Story took home a 53-36 victory. Isaiah Naylor was named the Jewell Market Player of the Game.
Roland-Story returns to action on Friday night, when they travel to Jefferson to take on Greene County in their Heart of Iowa Conference opener. Gilbert returns to action on Friday as they host Carroll in their Raccoon River Conference opener.