February 27, 2018 By Chris Varney
Some quick thoughts today before Craig Arendt and I head back to the Well for South Tama.
On Monday night, Grinnell blew a close game wide open in the 4th quarter and pulled away from Mason City 70-51. Naomi Jackson hit a big three pointer at the start of the 4th quarter and that set the tone. Macy Harris’ 3 with 5:42 left gave the Tigers a 54-44 lead and GHS never looked back from there.
Harris was spectacular on the defensive end. She shut down Megan Meyer for the entire game. Meyer did have 15 points but had just 5 points in the 2nd half; Meyer shot just 6-17 from the field and was 0-3 from three point land. Meyer leads all class 4A players with 71 threes but the future Iowa Hawkeye was shut down by Harris’ shut down defense.
Sienna Durr was a player on a mission for Grinnell. Durr had 24 ponts, 17 rebounds, and 5 assists. When the Mohawks went to full court pressure to try and create turnovers and increase possessions, Durr would be in the middle of it. Megan Doty inbounded the ball on a long pass to Durr who has the height and ball handling ability to look past the press and hit players in the front court for easy baskets. Not many 6 footers can do that.
Kameron Moore continues to show a lot of heart. The Senior had 22 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. In the third quarter, Mason City cut the Tigers lead to 36-33 but Moore got a big steal and converted on a lay-up to stop the Mohawks run. Whenever Grinnell needs a spark, it seems like Moore is the one who strikes the match.
Jackson hit some big shots too, finishing with 16 points and 4 rebounds. After Moore’s steal in the third quarter, Jackson would drive the lane after the defense fronted her on the perimeter and that basket kept the foot on the gas. Her three at the start of the 4th quarter was monster huge.
Mason City threw a lot of Grinnell — they tried man to man defense early and it didn’t work. They tried zone defense after that and the Tigers started hitting threes. That didn’t work either. They tried a half court trap, a full court press, pretty much everything except the kitchen sink defense and nothing worked. It made things interesting but it was too much Grinnell in the end.
Bring on the semifinals. Coverage on Thursday afternoon at 3:15 pm on 1410 KGRN and myiowainfo.com.