Keota Drops Belle Plaine in Second Round

KEOTA—The Keota Eagles hosted the Belle Plaine Plainsmen on February 17 for the second round of the Class 1A-Region 6 bracket. The Eagles defeated the Plainsmen by a final score of 68-56.

The Eagles started the first quarter slow, as they found themselves down 12-10. The Eagles commenced the second quarter with a 7-2 run to secure a 17-10 lead. The Eagles continued the momentum as they pushed their lead to 33-19 by the conclusion of the first half. 

The third quarter was the Evan Vittetoe show, as he dropped nine of his 18 points in the quarter. The highlight for Vittetoe came late in the third, when he scored seven straight points for the Eagles to end a 9-0 Belle Plaine run. 

The fourth quarter started with junior Sawyer Stout finding the basket after a tough first half. Stout knocked down a three then converted an and one in back to back possessions for the Eagles. Stout capped it off by leaking into transition, where teammate Cole Kindred found him with a cross court dime.

The Eagles out-scored the Plainsmen 37-35 in the second half en route to the 68-56 victory.

The Eagles leading scorer on the night was junior Evan Vittetoe with 18 points. Sawyer Stout was the second leading scorer with 14 points. Junior Cole Kindred was dropping dimes like he had a hole in his pocket, as he amassed 12 total assists. Keota head coach Dan Stout spoke on the facilitating from Kindred with, “He has been doing this all year long.” He emphasized that Kindred is a cerebral player, and does a great job of using his knowledge to make the right decisions. 

Coach Stout spoke on the victory with, “I thought our scoring was pretty good. I thought Evan Vittetoe did a nice job of recognizing that he needed to get the ball low and score.” He went on to give props to his team’s first half defense, which held the Plainsmen to only 19 points. 

For the upcoming game in the semifinals, coach Stout wants to see his team improve upon their defensive play from this game. He saw good things in the first half, but did not enjoy the defensive effort in the second half. He knows that at this point in the tournament, you have to have strong defense if you hope to beat a team as good as the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Rebels. 

The Eagles advance to the semifinals of the Class 1A-Region 6 bracket, where they will face the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Rebels, who are currently ranked 5th in Class 1A.