Tourney tidbits: Virus fear hits home

DES MOINES – In this exciting, frenzied boys basketball environment Montezuma finds itself in, student-athletes arrived back into town and got a dose of reality Monday afternoon.

The South Iowa Cedar League indoor track meet, scheduled for Monday, March 16 at Grinnell College’s indoor facility, has been canceled.

Reason: Coronavirus fears.

Grinnell College officials made the call, let SICL contact Alan Ling, the activities director at English Valleys know, and the word got passed around.

The SICL indoor meet is a 12-school girl/boy meet that attracts hundreds of athletes and spectators.

And be sure you understand: This is the March 16 indoor track meet in Grinnell, NOT the boys basketball tournament going on in Des Moines.

BASKETBALL: Here’s some stuff from the tournament – Montezuma has the lowest number of turnovers for the season of any of the eight tournament qualifiers.

The Braves led for 29:29 of Monday’s game against Martensdale-St.Marys. The Blue Devils led for 1:01. The contest was tied for 1:30.

Some other numbers:

Points in the paint – Blue Devils 28, Braves 24.
Points off turnovers – Blue Devils 4, Braves 17.
Second chance points – Blue Devils 12, Braves 4.
Bench points– Blue Devils 12, Braves 4.
Largest leads: Blue Devils by two at the 7:03 mark of the first quarter; Braves by 25 with 19 seconds left in the game.

Here’s an interesting one for the records: The state box score lists Masin Shearer with a technical foul. Actually, it belonged to Carson Elbert of the Blue Devils, when he slammed the basketball on the floor in frustration. Both players wear jersey #3. . .that’s an understandable error which they’ll surely correct.

By the way, Martensdale-St. Marys is a public school. They’re adjoining towns.