Nate Hutcheson and Zach Bohannon provided the punch last night as Linn-Mar defeated Cedar Rapids Xavier, 85-61, in a Class 4A boys’ substate semifinal at Linn-Mar in Marion.
Hutcheson scored 24 of his 26 points in the second half while Linn-Mar was outscoring Cedar Rapids Xavier 51-27. Bohannon posted a double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Lions (20-2), who advance to play Cedar Rapids Washington at 8 p.m. Tuesday in a substate final at the U.S. Cellular Center.
Nathan Joens paced Xavier (7-15) with 26 points.
C.R. KENNEDY 51, WATERLOO …

DES MOINES — Marion takes the highest regional pin total to the girls’ state bowling tournament.
The tournament, which starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Plaza Lanes, is the third under Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union sanctioning.
Neither of last year’s champions — Muscatine (2A) and Louisa-Muscatine (1A) — returns to defend.
Marion was a 1A regional champion.
The Indians’ regional score of 2,666 is 71 pins better than the second-highest total, by 2,595.
Brooke Post of Marion had the best 1A regional individual score of 469 in a two-game series.
Ottumwa is the team …

By Jeff Johnson
The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS
Their free-throw shooting in the dying seconds was big-time shaky, but their defense was big-time big time.
Cedar Rapids Washington missed a pair of potentially game-clinching one-and-ones but hung on to edge Cedar Rapids Jefferson, 60-57, in a fine Class 4A boys basketball substate semifinal last night at Washington.
The Warriors trip to Tuesday night’s substate final against No. 2 Linn-Mar at the U.S. Cellular Center wasn’t secured until Jefferson (11-11) missed a pair of tying 3-pointers in the last 9.9 seconds. Neither was a very good shot: …

Story Created: Feb 27, 2009 at 9:49 PM CST
Story Updated: Feb 27, 2009 at 10:58 PM CST
Cedar Rapids Washington held off Jefferson 60-57 to advance to the substate final against Linn-Mar tuesday night at the U.S Cellular Center. Linn-Mar came from 10 points down in the second quarter to beat Xavier 85-61 behind 26 points from Nate Hutcheson. Kennedy beat Waterloo East 51-36 to advance to the substate finals agianst Cedar Falls tuesday night at the Mcloud Center in Cedar Falls.

There will be a big media hole at the girls’ state basketball tournament next week.
WMT-AM apparently will not be doing radio play-by-play.
That’s not good news for folks from places like Springville, Tipton and Cascade, who would be listening to their teams play at 600. KGYM (1600) will cover the Metro schools.
I will be conducting a live chat from Wells Fargo Arena at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please feel welcome to follow along.

By Jeff Johnson
The Gazette
DYERSVILLE [--] Dan Correy was asked if he would take his Dyersville Beckman boys['] basketball team giving up the same number of points tonight it gave up in its district final this week.
["]Oh, yeah,[""] the coach chuckled. ["]That would definitely be all right with me.[""]
Beckman picked up an offensively challenged, 31-26, victory over Cascade, a school record for fewest points allowed. The Blazers (19-5) have set a school mark this season by allowing just 43 points a game.
On the other side, Beckman[']s opponent in a 7 p.m. …

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CEDAR RAPIDS – The seniors in the Don Bosco wrestling program have enjoyed a four-year game of “King of the Hill”.
During their prep career, they have never relinquished their spot atop the mound of the state’s Class 1A teams.
That group will attempt to become the first class in state history to sweep all eight state wrestling titles in its prep career at the Iowa High School Athletic Association State Duals tournament today at the U.S. Cellular Center.
The first rounds for all three classes begin today at 10 a.m. …

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CEDAR RAPIDS – The Class 3A field of the Iowa High School Athletic Association state dual wrestling tournament seems to be the only race in question today at the U.S. Cellular Center.
Don Bosco and Ballard are major favorites to win Class 1A and 2A, respectively. In the largest class, the question is whether balance will be enough to power Iowa City West to victory.
“We’ve wrestled five of the seven teams that are in there,” West Coach Mark Reiland said. “We’ve had some success. We’re 5-1 against the teams …

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The Northern Iowa baseball team has created a Web site to help raise money to save its program. The school announced earlier this week the baseball program would be cut unless $1.2 million was raised by the end of March.
As of Friday afternoon, the donation total was $45,295, including a single $10,000 donation by someone anonymous. Rumors ran rampant late Friday afternoon that a single donation of $1 million had been given, but that was not confirmed.
Here’s a link to the UNI baseball donation Web site:
http://www.supportunibaseball.com
Good luck, guys.

…

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The Western Dubuque Bobcats will make their first state duals appearance today when they face No. 2 Waverly-Shell Rock (26-4) in the Class 3A quarterfinals of the State dual tournament at noon at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.
You just might see Bobcats Coach Tom Danner doing his best Gene Hackman impression to ease his kids’ minds.
“We’re going to come out and measure the mat,” Danner said about a similar scene from the sports movie, “Hoosiers”. “They’re all going to be 42 (feet) by 42 (feet).
“Ours are …