Sigourney and North Mahaska squared off in one of those classic high school, basketball games on Thursday, Feb. 3. For North Mahaska it was an attempt to rebound from a tough loss to Montezuma two days before. Sigourney was riding a four-game win streak. The game saw four ties with not team holding more than a seven point lead. In the end, North Mahaska went 8-8 at the foul lie in the final 41 seconds to pick up the 67-63 win.
“This was a great basketball games by two good teams,” said Sigourney coach Mitch Eslick. “They got to the line and hit free throws and we had trouble getting shots to fall late.”
Sigourney led by three after one period and thanks to a Lane Harmon 3-pointer in the final seconds of the half allowed the
Savages to go to the locker room with a 33-32 edge. The teams changed third quarter leads before Sigourney went on a 7-0 run to take a seven point lead 45-38.
North Mahaska closed to within three by the break 51-48. Bo Schmidt dropped in a 3-pointer to lengthen the lead and the teams traded blows until Sigourney reached the 5:39 mark when Clay Morse dropped in a jumper. For a 56-52 lead. Nash Smith hit a jumper and was fouled but missed the free throw. After that NM went 9-of-10 the rest of the way in addition to a pair of
Ethan Huffman buckets.
North Mahaska’s defense stiffened and Sigourney managed buckets by Ethan Shifflett and Morse in addition to Schmidt’s trey in that same time frame.
“We hit free throws tonight and that was the difference,” said NM coach Seth Streebin. “They were hitting those threes and we struggled on the boards at times.”
Sigourney (12-8, 8-7) held the edge on the boards 31-27. Levi Crawford led the Savages with 18 points and five rebounds. Schmidt contributed 15 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. Karson Weber was also in double figures with 13. Shifflett had eight points and eight rebounds.
North Mahaska (15-4, 13-3) was led by Nash Smith with 24 and Lane Harmon with 21 points. Braden Steel finished with nine points and 14 rebounds while Huffman had six points.