Four Raiderettes earn POI honors
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The annual honors list by the Pride of Iowa Conference was released last week as the POI All-Conference girls basketball honors list was sent out.
On that list were four Mount Ayr Raiderette basketball players in sophomore Izzy Gilbertson, senior Breya Nickle, senior Jaxy Knight, and sophomore Dannie Stewart.
Mount Ayr finished the season 21-2 overall and 15-1 in the Pride Of Iowa Conference.
The Raiderettes were the POI champions this season.
Mount Ayr led POI All-Conference picks with four players while Martensdale-St. Mary’s and Lenox each had three selections. Mount Ayr was the POI champion this year with a 15-1 conference record, losing only to Lenox. Lenox and Martensdale-St. Mary’s tied for the runner-up spot at 13-3.The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union ranked All three teams for some or all of the season.Unanimous selections for the first team were Nodaway Valley junior Izzy Eisbach (31.0 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 5.3 spg, 3.1 apg), Mount Ayr sophomore Izzy Gilbertson (14.7 ppg, 9.6 rpg) and Lenox senior Sadie Cox (15.8 ppg, 14.2 rpg).
“Izzy is good on both ends and had a great year. I was happy that she got the recognition we thought she deserved with the unanimous selection,” said Mount Ayr head coach Thad Streit. “She has become a good ball handler and added that to her game. She can get out and run the floor well too,” said Streit.
Also a first team pick was senior Breya Nickle. Nickle was second on the team in scoring average with a 13.3-point average and second in rebounding with a 6.7-point average.
“Breya was a good player for us and gave us another inside player that most teams couldn’t match up against,” said Streit.
Senior Jaxy Knight was a second team selection and sophomore Dannie Stewart was a honorable mention pick. Knight averaged 9.4 points and 3.2 rebounds a game. Knight led Mount Ayr in assists with 98 and steals with 91. Stewart averaged 9 points a game and 3.1 rebounds a game. Stewart also had 83 assists and 62 steals.
“We got good play from our guards this year. Jaxy had some games where she didn’t score and she led us in steals, set the tone on defense and a heady player. We needed her on the floor in our big moments. Dannie will be back and she had a breakout year. We will need her to keep improving and come back next year ready to get a lot of playing time,” said Streit.
The Raiderettes averaged a POI best 60.7 points offensively and gave up a POI best 35.0 points defensively. They won their first 17 games this season before falling to Lenox on January 28. Mount Ayr did not lose back-to-back games this season. Mount Ayr was 1-1 in the postseason with a 1A Region 6 quarterfinal win over Lamoni 67-36 and a 1A Region 6 semifinal loss to Lenox 36-32.
The Raiderettes will return ten players from the team this year, including a potential senior class of Kensie Barnes, Kacie Larson, Abby Larson and a potential junior class of Jaylee Shaffer, MaKel Jones, Dannie Stewart, Izzy Gilbertson, Tatum Friedrich, and Keely Wasteney.
