Riverside Basketball Sweeps Exira-EHK in DH

Riverside's Kaden Schnack & Sophia Fenner
(12-1-25)

Riverside's Peyton Amdor
(12-1-25)

Riverside Basketball Sweeps Exira-EHK in DH –

(12-1-25) – Defense shined for both Riverside teams on the basketball court Monday.

In the girls’ contest, the Lady Dawgs made adjustments against the Exira-EHK press earning a hard-fought 50-45 win while the boys’ forced turnovers at an exceptional rate to beat the Spartans 70-26.

Riverside’s girls’ used a 10-3 run to jump out to as much as an 8-pt lead in the 3rd qtr, but Exira-EHK would battle back and take a 42-41 lead midway through the 4th qtr. The Lady Dawgs would then do a terrific job breaking the Spartans press defense finding Sydney Somers wide open under the basket. She’d make the bucket and get fouled on the play give Riverside a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The Lady Dawgs Kaden Schnack, who put up 13 points, including four 3-ptrs, felt her team recovered from the Spartans tight press throughout the game.

“We struggled against their press, which was good defensively, but overall, especially after halftime, I think we recovered as a team and were able to beat that pretty easily.”

Sophia Fenner had a double-double for Riverside with 14 pts and 12 rebounds. She talked about the mentality of the team as they came out of the halftime break trailing Exira-EHK, 17-14.

“Our goal is to just find our groove and keep working with each other, finding the open person, because since they were trapping, we were able to find those open looks and just keep doing our thing.”

Exira-EHK got 18 points from Taryn Petersen in the loss.

In the boys’ game, Riverside overwhelmed the younger Spartans bunch, for 17 turnovers in the 1st half alone. Peyton Amdor, who was the Bulldogs leading-scorer with 13 pts, explained how the transition game is an important part of their play.

“That's the main part about our defense is we're quick. We force turnovers. We translate the defense to the offense. That's our whole game. We've practiced it over the summer. We've practiced it last year. We knew coming into this game, we knew what to do.”

That quick defense created 17 steals for the Bulldogs.

Amdor feels with Riverside returning all their starters from as season ago, plus having a year under their belt learning the game from Coach Nick Kroon is helping with their composure going into this season.

“We've had the most confidence we have had in years because we just know what we're made of and we know that returning everyone just gives us an advantage. We almost did the same thing as last year and we know we can win a lot more games than we did last year.”

The Spartans Austin Rasmussen had 11 pts in the loss.

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