Making trips to Des Moines in March never gets old for the Newell-Fonda girls basketball program. For the 13th time in the last 16 seasons, and 18th time overall, the Mustangs will be competing in the class 1A state tournament after they beat AGWSR 76-39 in their regional final game played Thursday night at Fort Dodge.
The 2023 Mustang team is getting it done just like the previous teams under head coach Dick Jungers, who will be guiding his 14th team to state, great defense, unselfishness on offense, and a lot of hard work. For the 3rd straight tournament game the Mustangs defense held their opponent to just one made basket in the first quarter and in Thursdaynights game it helped Newell-Fonda run out to a 22-6 lead. Before you knew it the score was 45-23 at half and a continuous clock would start late in the 3rd quarter allowing all of the Mustangs to get into the game and enjoy the victory.
Mary Walker scored a game high 21 points including the 1,000th point of her career, Kierra Jungers had 12, and McKenna Sievers added nine.
AGWSR was led by Nakia Ollivierre’s 21 points and they finish the year with a record of 23-2.
The Mustangs are now 22-2 and are the #2 seed for the 1A state tournament and they will take on #7 seed Woodbine (23-2) Wednesday, March 1st at 5pm. Defending champion Bishop Garrigan is the #1 seed and will take on 8th seeded Martensdale-St. Mary’s Wednesday, March 1st at 1:30pm. Remsen-St. Mary’s is the #4 seed and will play 5th seeded West Fork and the other quarter-final game has #3 seed North Linn vs. #6 seed Winfield-Mount Union.
Click below to hear from Mustangs coach Dick Jungers and senior Mary Walker. (above photo courtesy of Scott Kilbride)
