Photos by Andrea Townsley
Iowa Girls’ High School State Basketball Tournament
Class 3A semifinal at Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Benton (23-3) 51, Vinton-Shellsburg (18-8) 42
VS 14 10 9 9 - 42 BC 14 10 10 17 - 51
Jenna Twedt scored 18 for Benton, with 6 of 8 shooting from the free throw line. Twedt also had four assists and four steals. With one block each were Twedt and Zoey Junge. Aubrey Kelly had six rebounds. Zoey Junge added five. With four each were Piper Nelson and McKenna Kramer. Brylee Bruce scored 10 for Vinton-Shellsburg.
Coach Z comments
Today was an outstanding team effort to beat a really good Vinton team. We got major contributions from all of our girls and it was enough to get us a win. We knew going in that it was going to be a dog fight and the game did not disappoint. I thought we did a great job of staying patient and working through a slow offensive start.
Having the opportunity to play tomorrow for a state championship is an awesome accomplishment for our girls! They are an amazing group to be able to work with and I can not be more thrilled to continue our season. The support of the community was great again today in the semifinal and we are excited to represent them again tomorrow night!
The state final is Friday, March 4, 2023, at Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines. Benton faces Sioux Center (20-5), who defeated Solon (23-3) in the semifinals, 46-44, on Thursday afternoon.
| VS | BC | |
| Field goals | 16/43 | 17/49 |
| 3-pointers | 2/11 | 6/18 |
| Free throws | 8/9 | 11/16 |
| Rebounds | 33 | 31 |
| Assists | 5 | 7 |
| Steals | 5 | 8 |
| Blocks | 3 | 3 |
| Turnovers | 13 | 8 |
| Fouls | 14 | 13 |
Jim Magdefrau 