A highly anticipated South Iowa Cedar League basketball matchup took place at North Mahaska High School on Friday with a pair of teams undefeated in the conference and Keota edged out a thriller 51-50.

The two evenly matched teams were tight throughout with the Eagles holding a slight 25-23 lead at half and 40-35 advantage after three. The Warhawks (7-2) clawed back after trailing by nine in the fourth, but a three point heave at the buzzer fell short and the Eagles escaped town with a victory. Carson Sprouse nailed three shots from behind the arc to finish with 19 points and Brady Duwa added 17 with five steals. Keota took care of the rock only coughing the ball up eight times. Head Coach Dan Stout credited his team’s defense. “Overall defensively I thought we did a really good job. We put some pressure on early and got a lot of steals. We did the right things at the right time to come out with the win.” They are now 10-0 overall and 8-0 in the SICL.

The girls had a rough first quarter trailing 30-3 after eight minutes and never recovered with North Mahaska (7-1) running away with a 77-23 win. The Eagles drop to 2-6 and 1-3 in conference. Both Keota squads get back on the court tomorrow hosting HLV.