Girl’s tourney through quarterfinals

The class 4A quarterfinal round is complete at the girls state high school basketball tournament. Top ranked Cedar Falls overcame a slow start and shot a blistering 63-percent in the first half to build a 25-point lead enroute to a 73-37 victory over Cedar Rapids Prairie. Cedar Falls coach Dan List says good defense got his team started.List says it was a good opener for his team, as it was Prairie’s first time at state and they seemed a little tight.Ellie Peterson led Cedar Falls with 16-points and the Tigers forced 25 Prairie turnovers to improve to 25-0. Cedar Falls will play fourth ranked Des Moines Lincoln in the semifinal round. Junior guard Linda Sayavonchanh (sye-uh-VON-chahn) poured in 20-points and made a key steal with two seconds remaining as fourth ranked Des Moines Lincoln edged fifth rated Ames 47-42, handing Rails coach Jerry Schartner his 400th career victory.Trailing by eight at the half, Ames rallied by scoring the first ten points of the third quarter.Ames coach Bruce Vertanen says they expended too much energy with the comeback and couldn’t hold on to win.In the class 3A quarterfinal round, top ranked Union outscored New Hampton 21-7 in the third quarter of play enroute to a 69-52 victory. All State junior forward Tiffany Reedy led Union with 29-points, including five three pointers, four of which came in the second half.Two time defending champion Washington got a boost from the bench in a 65-59 victory over M-O-C Floyd Valley in the 3A quarterfinal round. Nicole Teitsworth had 19-points and Diana Mullins added 12. Between them they averaged less than four points per game.Teitsworth says when the first couple of shots fell her confidence level grew.M-O-C coach Chris Yaw says his team gave an outstanding effort for a team that wasn’t expected to win.Also in 3A, Denison-Schleswig scored 18-points in the first quarter against Atlantic but managed on 17 the rest of the game as Atlantic claimed a 49-35 victory.Atlantic coach Don Jenkins says his team was able to change the tempo.