Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights Win State Championship Rematch

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights hosted defending Class 2A girls state champion New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva last night and avenged their state title game loss last March with a 64-49 win. Admittedly, the two teams are much different than they were then. NRHEG is without the services of Division I players Carlie Wagner and Jade Schultz and has a new head coach in Onika Peterson. K-W no longer has tenacious guards Audra and Meg Clark and very good all-around player Siri Sviggum.

The Panthers played zone most of the game, switching between a 2-3 and 1-3-1 and 5-foot K-W sophomore Kasey Dummer collected three first-half three-pointers to help the Knights take a 29-23 halftime lead. Incredible balance offensively pleased head coach Brent Lurken. Senior post Megan Quam, 5-foot-11, tallied 12 of her 15 points in the second half and seniors Brittany Flom and Emily Ashland added 11 points each while sophomore Mara Quam had 10 and sophomore Savannah Bleese had 8. The Knights were 15 of 19 from the free throw line in a very physical game.

NRHEG was led by the sophomore Wagner twins. Marnie had 21 points and Maddie 20. Both teams finished with seven threes. The Panthers were six of 11 from the charity stripe.

Our Held Bus Service Knights of the game were Dummer and Megan Quam. K-W is now 10-4 overall and NRHEG falls to 5-7. We'll be back in the Castle on Friday night when unbeaten Kasson-Mantorville comes to town. Kenyon-Wanamingo is also unbeaten in the Hiawatha Valley League. Coverage is scheduled to begin about 7 p.m.

 Kenyon-Wanamingo Pep Band