The Keota boys basketball team travels the short distance to Mid-Prairie tonight to take on BGM in the district final.

The Eagles had a physical game with Montezuma in the semifinals on Tuesday, and will turn around and play the most important game of the season to date just two days later.

Keota is 22-1 on the season, and scoring 65 points per game. The Eagles have beat BGM both times this season pretty handedly, 55-43 the first time, and 53-34 the second, but this will once again be a team that Keota will have to beat a third time through.

Luke Lyle and Kolton Greiner are the top scorers for Keota, and as we saw in the Montezuma game, if one can’t get it going, the other will step up and get it done. Nate Owen comes in with 10.5 points per game to help out with the scoring.

BGM comes into the game 18-6, and scoring 55 points per game. They beat Meskwaki Settlement 60-53 to get into this game. Kyle Gritsch is their leading scorer with 17.6 points per game, followed by Jake Tibbetts with 9.3 and Bryan Kriegel with 7.3. BGM has lost to both Keota twice in the regular season, and Montezuma, the team Keota beat in the semifinals, twice.

Keota head coach Dan Stout said his team is going to focus inward, but that BGM is a hard nose defensive team much like Montezuma.

“I guess the one thing that we have done all year long is we worry about what we do, we don’t worry a whole heck of a lot about what the other teams do,” Stout said. “BGM is a very tough hard nose team like Montezuma. That’s the fun part about 1A, you play Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, you don’t want to wear your kids out in practice.

Tonight’s game is at Mid-Prairie, and you can hear all of the action right here on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com under radio plus with pregame at 6:30 and tip-off at 7. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.