Miss Iowa Basketball — Carli Tritz, Sioux City Heelan.
CLASS 4A
First Team
Kiah Stokes, 6-3, jr., Linn-Mar; Jade Rogers, 5-11, sr., Cedar Rapids Kennedy; Virginia Johnson, 6-1, jr., Iowa City High; Amber Harrington, 5-10, sr., Davenport North; Riley Norman, 6-1, sr., Des Moines Roosevelt; Brittni Donaldson, 5-7, jr., Sioux City North; Markisha Wright, 6-2, jr., Des Moines East; Laura Johnson, 6-0, sr., Cedar Falls.
Second Team
Kionna Kellogg, 6-2, sr., Ames; Jadyn Spencer, 5-11, jr., Waterloo West; Kiersten Orton, 5-11, sr., Waukee; Kyley Simmons, 5-7, jr., Lewis Central; Shronda Butts, 5-7, jr., Des Moines …

DES MOINES — It can be argued that the Metro has never been stocked with so many big fish at one time.
Kiah Stokes, Morgan Paige and Jade Rogers and high-level Division-I players, one and all.
First-team all-staters, too.
Sportswriters selected the trio — and four others from the area — to the top team in their respective classes during Iowa Newspaper Association girls’ basketball all-state voting Saturday.
Stokes, a junior at Linn-Mar with a state championship and college offers galore, was named to the Class 4A first team. So was Rogers, a Cedar …

Check back after midnight tonight for complete lists of the INA Girls Basketball selections. Courtesy of prep multimedia journalist Jeff Linder.

DES MOINES — One team. One singular goal.
Throughout the season and all those wins, the postgame responses from the Linn-Mar Lions were generally the same.
Nice win, they would say, sometimes with a shrug. But it doesn’t mean much now. What matters is later.
Later has come and gone. That singular goal has been achieved.
Linn-Mar captured the Class 4A girls’ state basketball championship Saturday, capping a 26-0 season with a 38-35 win over Des Moines East.
“They had a focus. They had a goal,” said Linn-Mar Coach Mike Brandt. “From Day 1, they …

DES MOINES — It took 26 games, but somebody finally discovered a tonic to Scarlet Fever.
It came from Kiah Stokes’ vast ability. It came from D.J. Norman’s grit.
And it came from Kiley Haines’ courage.
Haines paused, shot and delivered the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining, and top-ranked Linn-Mar edged No. 2 Des Moines East, 38-35, to win the Class 4A girls’ state basketball championship Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
“If you draw it up, maybe she wouldn’t be our first option,” said Linn-Mar Coach Mike Brandt. “I don’t care who steps …

DES MOINES — About four seconds.
That’s how long it took Sioux City Heelan to assert itself as the superior team in Saturday night’s Class 3A girls’ basketball state-championship game.
The top-ranked Crusaders jumped all over No. 2 Waukon early and cruised to the title, 73-54, at Wells Fargo Arena.
All-tournament captain Carli Tritz nabbed a single-game tournament-record 11 steals as the Crusaders finished 26-1.
“We weren’t going to be stopped,” Tritz said. “You can slow down a freight train, but it’s going to keep going.”
Heelan was in its third straight final. The Crusaders …

 
DES MOINES — The cameras clicked. The bulbs flashed.
The Mount Vernon Mustangs smiled. They swayed. They sang along with the late Freddie Mercury.
They are the champions, my friend.
Again.
Mount Vernon blazed in the fourth quarter and rallied past No. 2 Manson-Northwest Webster, 59-56, to win the Class 2A championship at the girls’ state basketball tournament last night at Wells Fargo Arena.
“The feeling is undescribable,” said Micah Wieditz, who provided a long-distance lift off the bench. “It feels like I’m in a dream right now.”
Yes, these are dreamy days for female athletes …

A look at the action at the girls’ state basketball tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Saturday.
CLASS 3A CHAMPIONSHIP
#2 Waukon (25-1) vs. #1 Sioux City Heelan (25-1)
Time: 6 p.m.
Coaches: Waukon Coach Gene Klinge is the winningest coach in state history. He has a 48-year record of 956-218 with 16 state appearances. Darron Koolstra is in his first year at Heelan and is 25-1.
Top players: Mary Halvorson (5-11, sr.) paces Waukon at 17.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Logan Hjerleid (5-7, sr.) adds 9.7 ppg. Carli Tritz (5-11, …

DES MOINES — So we’re down to 1-vs.-2.
Twice.
The girls’ state basketball tournament concludes today with a pair of championship-game showdowns.
In Class 3A, top-rated Sioux City Heelan (25-1) faces No. 2 Waukon (25-1) at 6 p.m.
And in 4A, it’s No. 1 Linn-Mar (25-0) vs. No. 2 Des Moines East (25-0) at 8.
“We just don’t have a lot of size,” said Waukon Coach Gene Klinge. “Our kids will play hard. They’ll battle hard. But we’ll have our hands full.”
Heelan and Waukon have been 1-2 all season.
“Heelan is a great team,” said Waukon’s …

DES MOINES — A semifinal stumbling block? Not any more.
Kiah Stokes controlled the battle in the paint, and top-rated Linn-Mar downed No. 5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 58-53, in a Class 4A semifinal at the girls’ state basketball tournament Friday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.
“This has been one of our goals the entire time I’ve been here,” said Linn-Mar’s Kayla Klopfenstein. “This is nice to accomplish, but we’re not done yet.”
A semifinal casualty in 2008 and 2009, Linn-Mar (25-0) faces No. 2 Des Moines East (25-0) for the 4A title Friday …