Youthful BCIG has lofty dream
By Steven Allspach Journal sports writer | Posted: Sunday, March 05, 2006
IDA GROVE, Iowa -- An ambitious Battle Creek-Ida Grove girls basketball team needn't fall back on the ''wait'll next year'' mantra.
Coach Patrick Miller's Falcons have their talons out and are setting their sights on grabbing a possible Class 2A state championship this year.
Battle Creek-Ida Grove will take a 25-1 record into a 2006 Girls State Tournament breakfast call Tuesday morning (10 o'clock) against Wapsie Valley.
Next year, in fact, BCIG, with five juniors in the starting lineup now, might be eyeing a second straight state title.
That's how high expectations are for Miller's fifth-ranked team.
Kelsey Bolte, one of the state's premier juniors, will lead the Falcons into their tourney opener in the new Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
A freshman starter on the BCIG team that lost a first-round state game to Sioux Center in 2004, the 6-1 Bolte averages 21.9 points and 11 rebounds.
Fellow juniors, twins Dani and Gabi Miller, Crystal Schiernbeck and Shelby Schmidt were also members of the 2004 state tourney squad with the 5-4 Schmidt also filling a starting role. Schmidt averages 15 points.
The Millers, no relation to the coach, combine for 14.8 points a game and the 6-foot Schiernbeck averages 5.1 points and 5.2 rebounds.
Bolte, who connects on 63.5 percent of her shots from the field, is the 2A tourney scoring and rebounding leader and she also leads the field with 6.73 steals and 3.1 blocked shots a game. The crafty Gabi Miller is second in steals with 4.9 a game.
Fairbank Wapsie Valley, located in far northeast Iowa, showcases the state's career five-player assist leader in Jamie Sickles and her running mate at guard, Brittney McKowen, the sister of Iowa's all-time boys scoring leader Brooks McKowen, who now starts at Northern Iowa.
Sickles, a 5-7 senior point guard, has nearly 800 assists and has surpassed former career leader Mary Berdo of Washington (745), who later played at the University of Iowa.
"Wapsie Valley shoots the ball well,'' said BCIG's Coach Miller "and pressure doesn't seem to bother them.
"The key is keeping Sickles out of the lane where she passes the ball so well to teammates.''
McKowen averages 16.8 points a game, Sickles 12.3 and diminutive 5-3 junior guard Alana Wittenburg 9.1 points a game.
BCIG walloped South O'Brien 97-47 in a district tournament opener, then fought off 15th-ranked Lawton-Bronson 68-59 in overtime in the district final.
The Falcons then turned back Orange City Unity Christian's upset bid with a 61-56 overtime victory in the regional before stopping ninth-ranked Sioux Center 54-42 to claim its state tourney berth.
One of BCIG's most impressive regular-season outings was 57-47 conquest of Carroll Kuemper. Kuemper, ranked 12th in 3A, will meet unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Huxley Ballard in a first-round 3A game in Des Moines.
BCIG's only loss is to 3A Cherokee in the 10th game of the season, 55-50.
Wapsie Valley has lost to 1A qualifier Postville, Stanwood North Cedar, second-ranked 2A Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock and twice to fourth-ranked LaPorte City Union.
Unbeaten AGWSR is in the field, but a perfect Union had a 23-game winning streak severed by 12th-ranked Gladbrook-Reinbeck in a regional semifinal, 40-37.
Coach Patrick Miller's Falcons have their talons out and are setting their sights on grabbing a possible Class 2A state championship this year.
Battle Creek-Ida Grove will take a 25-1 record into a 2006 Girls State Tournament breakfast call Tuesday morning (10 o'clock) against Wapsie Valley.
Next year, in fact, BCIG, with five juniors in the starting lineup now, might be eyeing a second straight state title.
That's how high expectations are for Miller's fifth-ranked team.
Kelsey Bolte, one of the state's premier juniors, will lead the Falcons into their tourney opener in the new Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
A freshman starter on the BCIG team that lost a first-round state game to Sioux Center in 2004, the 6-1 Bolte averages 21.9 points and 11 rebounds.
Fellow juniors, twins Dani and Gabi Miller, Crystal Schiernbeck and Shelby Schmidt were also members of the 2004 state tourney squad with the 5-4 Schmidt also filling a starting role. Schmidt averages 15 points.
The Millers, no relation to the coach, combine for 14.8 points a game and the 6-foot Schiernbeck averages 5.1 points and 5.2 rebounds.
Bolte, who connects on 63.5 percent of her shots from the field, is the 2A tourney scoring and rebounding leader and she also leads the field with 6.73 steals and 3.1 blocked shots a game. The crafty Gabi Miller is second in steals with 4.9 a game.
Fairbank Wapsie Valley, located in far northeast Iowa, showcases the state's career five-player assist leader in Jamie Sickles and her running mate at guard, Brittney McKowen, the sister of Iowa's all-time boys scoring leader Brooks McKowen, who now starts at Northern Iowa.
Sickles, a 5-7 senior point guard, has nearly 800 assists and has surpassed former career leader Mary Berdo of Washington (745), who later played at the University of Iowa.
"Wapsie Valley shoots the ball well,'' said BCIG's Coach Miller "and pressure doesn't seem to bother them.
"The key is keeping Sickles out of the lane where she passes the ball so well to teammates.''
McKowen averages 16.8 points a game, Sickles 12.3 and diminutive 5-3 junior guard Alana Wittenburg 9.1 points a game.
BCIG walloped South O'Brien 97-47 in a district tournament opener, then fought off 15th-ranked Lawton-Bronson 68-59 in overtime in the district final.
The Falcons then turned back Orange City Unity Christian's upset bid with a 61-56 overtime victory in the regional before stopping ninth-ranked Sioux Center 54-42 to claim its state tourney berth.
One of BCIG's most impressive regular-season outings was 57-47 conquest of Carroll Kuemper. Kuemper, ranked 12th in 3A, will meet unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Huxley Ballard in a first-round 3A game in Des Moines.
BCIG's only loss is to 3A Cherokee in the 10th game of the season, 55-50.
Wapsie Valley has lost to 1A qualifier Postville, Stanwood North Cedar, second-ranked 2A Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock and twice to fourth-ranked LaPorte City Union.
Unbeaten AGWSR is in the field, but a perfect Union had a 23-game winning streak severed by 12th-ranked Gladbrook-Reinbeck in a regional semifinal, 40-37.
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