(photo contributed)
LE MARS — Gehlen Catholic punched their State basketball tournament ticket Wednesday night at the Le Mars Community gym with a hard-fought 73-63 victory over No. 9 Kingsley-Pierson, winning the region 1 title with wins over the top two seeds. The two teams were never separated by more than ten points at any point in the game that featured seven lead changes and seven ties. Gehlen led at every quarter break, 15-11 after one quarter, 29-28 at halftime and by 53-49 going into the final eight minutes. Lauren Heying scored 14 of her career-high 25 points in a 24-point third quarter for Gehlen while Sydney Livermore dropped in a season-high 22 points for the Lady Jays. Career-scoring leader, Addison Weber finished with 16 points to extend her all-time mark to 1,061. Jayde Barto ended her basketball career at Kingsley-Pierson with 18 points to move into third place on the Panther’s career scoring list. Weber and Barto were former teammates on a junior high travel team. Brooklyn Beery added 16 for K-P. The Panthers end the season at 20-5 and have now missed the last two State tournaments with Regional final losses after playing in Des Moines in 2017 and 2018. Gehlen will make just their second State tournament appearance in girls basketball and their first since Marty Kurth’s 2012 team. The Lady Jays will play their first round game next Wednesday at 5 pm against No. 2 Marquette Catholic. The Lady Jays have now made State tournament appearances in softball, volleyball and basketball in consecutive sports seasons.
