The South Hamilton Hawks and Roland-Story Norsemen basketball teams collided for the first time the season at Bill Marsh Court in Jewell, as the original meeting scheduled for December 16th was postponed due to a winter storm. South Hamilton’s girls entered at 8-2 overall and 5-1 in conference play and ranked #11 in Class 2A per the IGHSAU, as Roland-Story entered at 6-4 overall and 5-1 in conference play. South Hamilton’s boys entered at 6-3 overall and 4-2 conference play, as Roland-Story entered at 9-0 and 6-0 in conference play and ranked #3 in Class 2A per the IHSAA.
South Hamilton’s girls were not only trying to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the conference title race, but exercise old demons by beating a Roland-Story program they had not beaten since December of 2009. Both sides traded possessions in the first quarter, but not much scoring showed as South Hamilton held a 10-8 lead, but the Norsemen had a big 2nd quarter, and the late spurt in the frame put Roland-Story up 28-20 at halftime. The Hawks offense then came to life in the 3rd quarter, outscoring Roland-Story 26-13 in the frame to take a 46-41 lead. The fourth quarter saw lead changes see-saw back-and-forth, but a Kailyn Northrup three-pointer with under 2 minutes to go put the Hawks up 6, and they never looked back in their 64-55 win, snapping 23-game losing streak to the Norsemen. Makena Galetich scored a career-high 28 points, while Hallee Feaker added 20 points, Roland-Story’s Alyssa Jones finished with a career-high 21 points off the bench.
The boys game followed, looking to match the energy and excitement of the girls game, but the 3rd-ranked Norsemen did what they could to zap the energy out of the building in the 1st quarter, leading 22-9 after the first. South Hamilton would not go quietly, outscoring the Norsemen 13-11 in the 2nd quarter to make it a 33-22 halftime deficit. However, Roland-Story proved their #3 ranking in the 2nd half, outscoring South Hamilton 41-21 en route to a 74-43 win. Jonovan Wilkinson led all scorers with 17 points for Roland-Story, while Ryland Ubben led South Hamilton with 13 points.
South Hamilton returns to action on Friday night, when they host Perry at South Hamilton High School in Jewell. Roland-Story is back in action on Thursday night, when the girls travel north to face Clear Lake, and the boys travel to Ankeny to take on Class 1A #1 Grand View Christian.