March 29, 2024

Three area athletes approaching scoring milestone

Collins-Maxwell/Baxter senior Bryce Kemp was never really concerned about how many points he scored in a game. He would have been OK with two points a game if his team went undefeated.

Over in Monroe, Courtney VanHouweling and Rachel Freland played on the same AAU team back in the fifth grade before reuniting as high school teammates for the Class 3A No. 15 Prairie City-Monroe Mustangs.

All three area athletes are approaching a scoring milestone and the trio will likely surpass the 1,000-point mark later this week.

Kemp could do it as early as tonight when the Raiders take their two-game win streak to Greene County. The CMB senior needs just 10 points to hit a grand.

“It’s a great honor. It feels good,” Kemp said. “If I had a choice, I would be OK with scoring two points and letting everyone else score if that meant we still won.”

Van Houweling, a four-year starter at PCM, is currently scoring a little more than 11 points per game this season. She’ll need a few more than that during the Mustangs’ home game against Roland-Story tonight. The PCM standout is at 985 career points, 15 shy of the milestone mark.

“It’s a real honor and it’s nice that all of her hard work has paid ofl,” PCM coach Bret Grier said of VanHouweling. “Courtney has been pretty special for me the past four years. I haven’t had to worry at all about a point guard.”

If VanHouweling needs another game to hit the mark, she could surpass the barrier with Freland later in the week.

Freland reunited with her former AAU teammate during the holiday break last season after spending her first two and a half years at West Marshall.

She will likely reach the 1,000 mark despite only scoring 91 points as a freshman. She is currently averaging 17.4 points per game, meaning she could eclipse the historic mark when the Mustangs host Class 3A No. 7 Nevada in a Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference showdown Thursday night.

Freland needs 28 points to reach 1,000.

“Rachel has been working on her game since she was real young, too” Grier said. “It’s a nice honor for her to have and she earned it.”

“They are both great players. They are both great kids. And they both get along with their teammates really well.”

Hoops in Iowa is better than ever

Never has three Division I basketball teams from the state of Iowa been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.

Until now.

The latest poll came out Monday and Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Iowa are all a part of the rankings.

Iowa State moved up to No. 9 after its win over Kansas, Iowa jumped into the rankings at 25 after sweeping Ohio State and winning at Minnesota last week. Northern Iowa climbed to No. 20 after another dominating week in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Whether you root for the Cyclones, Hawkeyes or Panthers, this should be a fun rest of the season for you.

And Drake even got its first MVC win over the weekend against an Indiana State team that was previously unbeaten in conference play.

Contact Troy Hyde at
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or thyde@newtondailynews.com