Strong 2nd half leads Comet boys past Indians for 7th straight win; CC girls draw Decorah for regional QF

Press Staff Report

WAUKON — Down by 5 points at the half, the Charles City Comets boys basketball team rode a strong second half on the way to a 76-64 victory over Waukon on Tuesday night.

Seniors led the way for the Comets with Keenan Wiley scoring 17 points, pulling down seven rebounds (four offensive), dishing out five assists and coming up with a pair of steals; Jack Hanson adding 16 points with a game-high eight assists, and four steals; Kayden Kasemeier scoring 15 while shooting seven-of-eight from the field; and Jeb Wandro scoring 14 with much of that coming from four-of-11 shooting from 3-point range.

The effort improved Charles City’s overall record to 12-7 and Northeast Iowa Conference mark to 6-4. The win was the Comets’ seventh straight and 12th in their last 14 games.

The Comets have two more regular-season games left, including a challenging road trip to Aplington-Parkersburg on Friday to take on the 15-5 Falcons. Charles City will close the regular season next Thursday (Feb. 15) when it hosts Hampton-Dumont-CAL in a rescheduled non-conference game.

Charles City’s forthcoming Class 3A substate pairings won’t be announced until early next week.

* In the previous girls game as part of Tuesday’s NEIC varsity doubleheader, Waukon defeated Charles City 66-44 despite 16 points and four steals by senior Maggie Boss; 9 points and four assists from senior Lauren Staudt; 8 points and three steals from senior Alex Wohlers; 6 points and four assists from Maddie Lensing; and seven rebounds from senior Hannah Hoffman.

It was the final regular-season game for the Comets (2-19, 0-10 NEIC).

On Monday, the Comet girls hosted Class 4A, No. 6-ranked Mason City in its final home game, and lost 61-21. Wohlers led the Comets with 7 points.

Next Wednesday, Charles City’s girls will travel to Decorah to face the Vikings (14-6) in the Class 4A, Region 2 quarterfinals. The winner advances to face semifinal host Western Dubuque (15-6) — currently ranked No. 14 — the following Saturday (Feb. 17).

Other schools in the bracket include No. 2-ranked Waverly-Shell Rock (20-0), Nevada (9-12) and Bondurant (8-12).

Finals will be Feb. 20 at the higher-seeded/ranked school. Tip-off time for all regional games is 7 p.m.