Adriana Katcher already had two state cross country championships on her resume. Now the Center Point-Urbana senior can add a couple of more honors to her collection. Katcher scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and was named captain of the alltournament team as Center Point-Urbana beat North Polk 54-36 to win the Class 3A state championship.
It was the third-ranked Stormin' Pointers first appearance in the title game and they certainly looked the part of champions in finishing off a 24-2 season. They never trailed after wiping out an 8-5 deficit with a 23-6 run, then scored nine of the first 11 points in the second half to stretch their lead to 40-20. North Polk never got closer than 16 points after that.
Freshman Ryley Goebel capped an outstanding tournament with 12 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Goebel made 20 of her 24 shots in the two games and set a Class 3A tournament record with 16 steals. Callyn Fox added nine points for the winners, who held the top-ranked Comets to 30 percent shooting and forced 17 turnovers with their aggressive, trapping defense. Center Point-Urbana won its three games at state by an average of 28 points.
Jaedon Murphy led North Polk with 17 points, sophomore Maggie Phipps, who already has accepted a scholarship offer from Drake, scored seven and Lucy Schaffer had six.
Katcher, a junior who has committed to Southern Illinois for basketball, was joined on the all tournament team by Goebel, Phipps, Murphy, Des Moines Christian's Kaili Lawson and Waukon's Annika Headington.
Though Center Point-Urbana started four seniors and moves to Class 4A next season, Katcher and Goebel will return and that's a pretty good duo to build around.