Champions will be crowned tonight in class 1A and 2A at the boys state basketball tournament. Danville will bid for a second straight 2A championship thanks to the late heroics of Jake Wenig, again. After sinking a shot from half court to force overtime in an opening round victory, Wenig blocked the potential game winning lay-up by PCM Monroe’s Todd Lorensen as the Bears claimed a thrilling 57-56 win. Wenig says he knew Lorensen would be the one to take the shot in the clutch and he kept his eye on him.Wenig says he knew Lorensen was left-handed and that help him set up for the block. Lorensen dribbled the length of the court just to get the lay-up after Danville’s Brock Ita had scored with eight seconds remaining. He says there wasn’t much time to do anything but dribble up and try to get a shot off.Danville will play Garner-Hayfield tonight. The Cardinals remained unbeaten with a 52-41 win over Dyersville Beckman. Forward Shaun Wumkes was one of three Cards in double figures with 11-points and says they were much sharper than in a first round win. He says they pushed the tempo and weren’t so “jitterish.”Pella’s Klayton Korver had a tough shooting night, making just five of 13 from the field but the last one he made was the most important. Korver’s short jumper with a minute-20 remaining proved to be the game winner as Pella edged Oelwein 48-45 to earn a spot in Saturday night’s 3A title game. Korver says the balls weren’t going in for him until he took the last shot.Oelwein had the ball with the score tied and just under three minute remaining when coach Mitch Murphy decided to spread the court. Murphy says they were trying to run off some clock as they had some foul trouble. He says he’s proud of the way his team played as they had a chance to win at the end.
