Nevada Beats Pocahontas Area For 3A Girls Basketball Championship

Nevada ended a long wait when it qualified for this year state's tournament. An even longer wait ended when the Cubs won their first girls state basketball championship.

Alli Fey complemented Nevada's strong inside game with her outside shooting and the seventh-ranked Cubs beat No. 2 Pocahontas 58-54 to win the Class 3A title.

Fey knocked down 5 of her 7 3-point shots and scored 20 points, well above her 8.8 average. Lexy Koudelka, a 6-foot-1 freshman, had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Cubs (24-3) and 6-foot junior Kati Cassabum scored 16.

Nevada reached the state tournament for the first time since 1968 and made it to the championship game for the first time since losing in the finals of Iowa's very first girls tournament in 1920. And the Cubs got it done with a young team. They did not have a senior in the starting lineup.

Pocahontas (25-2) got another big game from 5-foot-3 sophomore Elle Ruffridge, who led all scorers with 33 points. Ruffridge was named captain of the all-tournament team after scoring 73 points in her three games at state. She now was 1,342 points in her career, with two more years to add to that total.

Rose Meyer and Autumn Radig each scored seven for the Indians, who forced 26 turnovers but couldn't cope with Nevada's size.

Pocahontas made the finals for the first time behind the energetic Ruffridge and her hustling teammates and led 34-30 after Radig sank two free throws early in the third quarter. But that lead didn't stand up for long.

Nevada's Abby Stephenson drove the baseline for a layup and Fey hit consecutive 3-pointers to put the Cubs ahead to stay.

Fey connected again from behind the arc midway through the fourth quarter to make it 53-43 and Pocahontas never got closer than the final margin after that.

Ruffridge scored all 13 of her team's points in the fourth quarter, but Nevada made just enough free throws to stay comfortably ahead.