DES MOINES — Ladies and gentlemen, here’s your overwhelming favorite for the Class 2A state basketball championship in 2011. If it’s fair to look a year ahead.
The Western Christian Wolfpack pocketed their sixth title last night, preventing Solon from a 2A repeat with a 58-45 victory at Wells Fargo Arena.
The almost overwhelming thing about this WC team is that there was one senior of any significance. Of course, point guard Bryce Groeneweg was the all-tournament captain, so he’ll be missed.
But everyone else is back, and that includes a lot of …

Sportswriter Jeff Linder will provide live coverage of tonight’s Class 3A state championship game between Solon (25-2) and Hull Western Christian (24-3).
Tipoff is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. Follow the live coverage below.
Solon vs. Hull Western Christian: Class 3A basketball final

DES MOINES — Their top six players from last season graduated. So did 90 percent of their scoring.
But these are the Solon Spartans, and all they do in most sports is win, baby.
“There were a lot of doubters who thought we’d only finish about halfway up our conference,” Tanner Wentzien said after his team out-defensed IKM-Manning, 42-34, in a Class 2A state tournament semifinal Thursday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena. “But we won our conference, and now we’re playing for a state title.”
The Spartans (25-2) go for two 2A titles …

Sportswriter Jeff Johnson will provide live coverage of today’s Class 2A semifinal game between Solon (24-2) and IKM-Manning (25-0).
Tipoff is set for 3:45 p.m. Check out the live blog below.
Solon vs. IKM-Manning — Class 2A semifinal

CLASS 2A QUARTERFINALS
TURKEY VALLEY (19-6) vs. IKM-MANNING (24-0) at 12:05 p.m.: Second-seeded IKM-Manning finished the regular season ranked No. 2 by the Associated Press. It’s the first state tournament trip for the combined program, though Manning made eight tourney appearances, Manilla three and Manilla IKM two. The Wolves limited opponents to less than 40 points 16 times this season. All five starters are seniors, led by forwards Jared Croghan (12.8 ppg) and Rick Blake (10.3) … This also is the first state tournament appearance for Turkey Valley, which finished second to Sumner-Fredericksburg …

THE TEAMS
Team (W-L) Apps Titles
Carroll Kuemper (15-11) 12 1
Des Moines Christian (26-0) 5 0
IKM-Manning (24-0) 1 0
Mid-Prairie (19-5) 7 0
Solon (23-2) 5 1
Turkey Valley (19-6) 1 0
Wapsie Valley (20-5) 7 0
Western Christian (22-3) 16 5
SCORING LEADERS Avg.
Branden Stubbs (DMC) 25.8
Tyler Wolterstorff (WC) 19.3
Tanner Miller (M-P) 18.7
Zach Schmidt (WV) 14.9
Tanner Wentzien (Solon) 13.0
Michael Aldeman (M-P) 12.9
Jared Croghan (IKM) 12.8
Ryan Blumer (DMC) 12.3
Bryce Berg (CK) 12.0
Taylor Sickles (WV) 11.5
REBOUNDING LEADERS Avg.
Zach Schmidt (WV) 9.6
Mitch Balik (TV) 7.8
Dilan Moss (WC) 7.2
Colin Ritzman (WV) 7.0
Jarad Gaskill (IKM) 7.0
PREDICTIONS
Quarterfinals
Des Moines Christian 70, Carroll Kuemper 51
Western …

How about that?
Mid-Prairie ended Solon’s 33-game boys’ basketball win streak via a 55-52 upset win Dec. 22 at Solon. Now the longtime rivals meet again … this time in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
Mid-Prairie (19-5) is the sixth seed in Class 2A and will play third-seeded Solon (23-2) in a 1:45 p.m. quarterfinal Tuesday, March 9 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
The defending 2A champion, Solon surprised a lot of people with a 61-32 blowouts of Danville (22-2) in a substate final Saturday night at Bettendorf. The Spartans …

Here’s a look at the four boys’ basketball games Saturday involving area schools. All games begin at 7 p.m.
CLASS 1A
Central City (13-11) vs. Calamus-Wheatland (19-5) at Clinton: Central City has been hurt by injuries to starters Jacob Etten and Mason Nielsen. Both are back in the lineup, which helped the Wildcats post district wins over Springville (42-40), Lone Tree (65-52) and Lisbon (63-46). Center John Rochford leads CC in scoring (15.2 ppg) and rebounding (11.3 rpg). Point guard Jeffrey Stevens averages 12.3 ppg … Calamus-Wheatland posted a big upset of …

CEDAR RAPIDS — It was the closing seconds and the outcome was decided. A North Cedar player mishandled a pass from a teammate in the backcourt and had the basketball squirt away out of bounds.
Never did a moment sum up a game more than that one.
A harassing full-court, trapping defense was more than enough to lift No. 4 Solon past the No. 10 Knights, 70-56, in a highly anticipated Class 2A district championship game last night before about 1,200 fans at Jefferson. It’s the sixth straight district title for Solon …

The big Solon-North Cedar Class 2A district final boys’ basketball game Tuesday night has been moved from Tiffin to Cedar Rapids Jefferson. Clear Creek-Amana had its Class 3A district game Monday night against Fairfield postponed because of Sunday’s snows, with the game re-scheduled for Tuesday.
Hence, the need to move Solon-North Cedar. Solon is ranked fourth in 2A and North Cedar 10th.