Riceville wins postseason rematch with N-P

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The rematch was set on Thursday between Nashua-Plainfield and Riceville as hoops squads across the state began their march toward the state tournament and Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

In an opening round Class 1A, Region 3 postseason tilt, Riceville moved on and kept its postseason hopes alive with a 50-37 victory over N-P.

Riceville (13-9) defeated the Huskies (6-16) during the regular season in Nashua, 56-49.

The contest was close after one quarter of play, with both teams knotted up at 13-13. Riceville would lead 19-17 at intermission and take a 34-29 lead into the final stanza. Riceville outscored N-P 16-8 in the final period.

“A lot of that came down to we were fouling at the end, too, so it was probably a little bit closer than maybe the score indicates,” said N-P head coach Josh Smith.

Breanna Hackman led N-P with 16 points and Jennah Carpenter added 13 points for the Huskies. Makenzie Foelske notched six points and Libby Fisher added two points to round out the N-P scoring.

“They had a couple other girls tonight that stepped up and knocked down some shots. A lot of ours weren’t falling,” said Smith. “It just kind of had a funky feel to it honestly. When there were loose balls bouncing around it ended up going kind of right to their girls, just an odd night relative to how we’ve been playing the last few weeks.”

Riceville moves on to play at 15th-ranked Clarksville (19-3) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

On the top half of Region 3, Rockford (4-16) versus Janesville (10-11) was postponed because of weather. That game will be played on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Janesville. The winner takes on seventh-ranked St. Ansgar (18-2) on Tuesday.