Chase Comes Up Short for St. Albert Girls’ BKB, Fall to Newell-Fonda, 50-45

St. Albert's Brooklynn Rutledge & Avah Underwood (3-6-26)

Chase Comes Up Short for St. Albert Girls’ BKB, Fall to Newell-Fonda, 50-45 -

(3-6-26) – The chase ended a game too soon.

Girls 1A State Semifinals had a rematch of last year’s state championship between St. Albert and Newell-Fonda and the Mustangs would pull away late to exact their revenge for last year’s loss, beating the Saintes, 50-45.

Saintes Coach Dick Wettengel is proud of the season his team put together.

“Our kids have nothing to be ashamed of. They poured their hearts into it. They work hard all the time and unfortunately, somebody has to lose and you still learn a lot of lessons along the way and our kids are going to be better from it.”

The game was defined by a series of runs with St. Albert running out to 12-0 lead before Newell-Fonda went on 17-0 run of their own to take the lead after the first qtr. An 8-0 run by the Saintes in the 2nd qtr would allow them to take the lead at the half.

With the game tied in the 4th qtr, the Mustangs would go on an 8-3 run to close out the scoring.

The game was a back-and-forth affair that saw 11 lead changes. St. Albert dominated in the paint scoring 30 points and outrebounded Newell-Fonda 43 to 29.

But the Mustangs were solid from the charity stripe, going 16 of 22, and it would be the difference in the contest.

Freshman Quinn Sievers was brilliant off the bench with 18 pts and 8 rebounds for Newell-Fonda, who will play in the 1A State Championship game for a 4th consecutive year when they face Bishop Garrigan.

St. Albert junior Brooklynn Rutledge said she and her teammates expected it to be a battle.

“We knew it would be a game of runs. It was a matter of bringing it back, getting more momentum, coming back from those,” said Rutledge, who had 8pts and 8 rebounds in the contest. “We started out with the run, they responded, and then we came back again. You know, it just comes down to the little things, handling the ball, being strong, everything like that.”

Senior Avah Underwood finished her career with St. Albert with a double-double of 16 pts and 10 boards. She believes being a part of this program and this school has been an amazing experience.

“It definitely means a lot. I put a lot of time to this program on the floor and with our little kids. So to be able to come here and perform all these years, it's really great. It's really fulfilling.”

The Saintes were without juniors Alexa Lenz and Maura Ryan for much of the year. Each were expected to be big contributors to a talented team that was coming off a state championship. With their likely return next season along with the current experienced group of players, Underwood feels the team she leaves behind will do great things in the future.

“This team has faced a lot of adversity with two girls out with injury, two big contributors. So, for us to kind of get back here and make it as far as we did, it's really great to see our girls push through and I'm truly excited to see what our girls can do next year, because I really think they’re going to do great things.”

Wettengel knows seniors, Underwood and Molly Wise, have created an impressive resume while with the Saintes.

“Those seniors, three trips to the semi-finals and then one state championship. So, you know, there’s not very many teams or kids that can say that they've had that experience.”

St. Albert finishes their season 22-4.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats