WELCOME BACK: Woodbine Boys’ BKB Holds On vs Madrid to Return to State, 56-51

Woodbine's Jax Pryor
(2-28-26)

Woodbine's Brody Pryor
(2-28-26)

Woodbine's Landon Blum
(2-28-26)

WELCOME BACK: Woodbine Boys’ BKB Holds On vs Madrid to Return to State, 56-51 –

(2-28-26) – It wasn’t a walk in the park, but the result remained the same.

For a third consecutive year, Woodbine boys’ basketball will return to the State Tournament after defeating Madrid, 56-51, in 1A Substate 6 Championship Game at the Knapp Center in Des Moines Saturday.

Woodbine got off to a fast start, using a 14-0 run to pull out to an early 19-3 lead, helped by 13 pts from Landon Blum. But Blum also picked up 3 fouls in the opening quarter. He then picked up his 4th midway through the 2nd qtr and had to sit. It allowed Madrid to start to crawl back into the contest.

Blum ended up fouling out on a charge call with 4:16 left in the 4th qtr, finishing with 23 pts. He felt he had the right frame of mind to stay in the game, despite not being able to do so.

“My mentality (I) was good, but the way I handled it was not, because I ended up falling out, but I'm just trying to stay controlled, stay composed, and be smart out there. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that, which is tough. But I had all the faith in my world in my teammates to get the job done, so I'm happy we got the dub.”

Blum’s faith was justified as Woodbine, led by Brody Pryor and Jax Pryor, along with big shots by Henry Gruver kept them on top of Madrid.

Brody Pryor, who had 11 pts and 6 boards, made some terrific defensive plays to create turnovers and lead to runout points for Woodbine, allowing them to keep Madrid at bay. He gave credit to Madrid for not giving up after trailing early.

“We got up to a big start. We're up by as much as 20, and they just never went away. They just keep coming back at us, and that's a good basketball team. We played there. They just they just don't go away and we just stayed together, stayed together and persevered through, and we got it done.”

Madrid slowly whittled away at the deficit behind Logan Bogardus, who scored 10 of his 15 pts on the game in the 2nd half, and leading scorer Javyn Severson, who finished with 17 pts and 8 rebounds. Madrid would get the game down to three in the 4th qtr, but solid rebounding by Woodbine held off the comeback.

Jax Pryor knows the goal for himself, and his teammates remain the same as it has been the past two seasons.

“It's our one goal is try to win a game at State, and then from there on we’re just going to keep on going.”

Brody Pryor is excited to play at the 1A State Tournament for a third consecutive year.

“It's awesome. Three back-to-back times. It's just every kid's dream when they're little is just they want to make it to state here. We've made it three back-to-back times. I'm very blessed with these teammates beside me and it's just an unbelievable experience.”

Woodbine will play No. 1-ranked St. Edmond in the 1A State Tournament Quarterfinals at the Casey’s Center on Tuesday.

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