DES MOINES — They are arguably the two best girls basketball players in the state of Iowa. If not 1 and 2, they are certainly on the short list.
One will be a Hawkeye. The other will be a Cyclone.
Heck, Iowa City West’s Ally Disterhoft and Mason City’s Jadda Buckley shared a backcourt as members of the All-Iowa Attack on the AAU circuit with Buckley at the point and Disterhoft at a wing spot.
Buckley is ranked 33rd nationally on ESPN’s HoopGurlz Top 100. Disterhoft is ranked 69th. How’s that for star power?
Add in that the Women of Troy (18-5) are defending state champions and Mason City (20-3) and its veteran lineup is at state for the third straight year and you have plenty of intrigue for today’s Class 5A state tournament opener at 6:45 p.m. inside Wells Fargo Arena.
“She grew up a Hawkeye. I grew up a Cyclone,” Buckley said. “Those were our schools. You just respect any great player whether you are playing with them or against them.”
Disterhoft, an Iowa recruit, is the state’s leading scorer at 26.1 points per game. The 6-foot wing shoots better than 64 percent from the floor.
Buckley does it in a different way, although she can dominate the scoring column when she needs to as was evident by her 22-point performance in the regional final win over Dubuque Senior.
She is one of four Mohawks (along with Myah Mellman, Cortni Rush and Makenzie Meyer) who average in double figures and leads the team with 13.3 points per contest. She also leads the team with five assists and just under four steals per game despite missing eight games due to an ankle injury.
This game, though, goes well beyond the star matchup for the Mohawks.
It’s almost personal in some cases.
There’s Mason City’s Mellman, the sharpshooter out to atone for what she says was a difficult game at last year’s state tournament where she didn’t score.
“Not exactly my best game, but I think I definitely put in a lot of work in the off-season and in-season. Everybody on our team has done that,” Mellman said.
When you talk to Iowa City West coach B.J. Mayer, an Osage graduate, you can tell Mason City has his full attention.
“The thing that impresses me, and not just Jadda, is Myah Mellman, Cortni Rush, the freshman (Makenzie Meyer)…,” Mayer said. “They are good enough to get into the lane, collapse the defense and kick.”
For Iowa City West, at least statistically, it is mainly about Disterhoft, although sophomore Dani Craig averages 11 points per contest. The Women of Troy have only three players who score more than three points per game.
Mohawk senior Morgan Vorba may draw the starting assignment on Disterhoft.
Despite winning last year’s Class 4A state title, Disterhoft is the lone player on this year’s roster that was a key contributor then.
“It’s a different team,” Mayer said. “It’s one thing to go out and cheer and another to go out and put it in the hoop.”
Disterhoft alone makes this a scary matchup for anyone in the state tournament.
She scored 29 points on 9 of 14 shooting with nine rebounds in a 55-42 regional final victory over No. 1 Iowa City High. She has tallied 20 or more points in every game except the season opener for the Women of Troy.
Can Mason City slow her down?
“I’m not sure you do,” Mohawk coach Curt Klaahsen said. “She’s been on a scoring rampage lately. You have to give her different looks, throw some different people at her.”
Mason City is still looking for its first win at the state tournament.
Last year ended with a buzzer-beating loss at the hands of Waukee in the first round of the state tournament. It was a 93-percent shooting effort from the Warriors in the second half of that game that crushed Mason City’s dreams of a title.
Since then, playing at the state tournament wasn’t the goal for Mason City. It was simply expected.
The Mohawks lead Class 5A with 175 made 3-pointers on 36-percent shooting from beyond the arc and they are a confident group heading into tonight’s matchup.
“It doesn’t matter night in and night out who scores and who doesn’t score,” Mellman said. “We just want to get the game won.”
And that would be a first in school history if it pans out tonight.
“(Tuesday), just going around to all the schools was so exciting,” Buckley said. “You can tell, even in practices, that it’s ‘let’s go.’”
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