Regional Basketball Preview: Red Oak faces MOC-Floyd Valley for shot at state

The Red Oak girls basketball team has a chance to get back to state for a second straight year. MOC-Floyd Valley, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3A, is the only team standing in their way.

The two teams face off in the 3A Regional Final Saturday night at Denison-Schleswig High School in Denison.

Red Oak enters the regional final with a 17-6 record. They defeated Atlantic in the quarterfinals last Saturday.

In the semifinals, Red Oak rallied in the second half to knock off the Shenandoah Fillies in Shenandoah Wednesday night, 57-46.

The Tigers have won seven of their last eight games. The lone loss was the last regular season game when they fell to Shenandoah.

Kate Walker will undoubtedly be one of the key players for Red Oak. In the win against Shenandoah Wednesday night, Walker scored 29 points and had 12 rebounds, all coming while facing double-team and in some instances, triple-team defenses.

The Tigers will also need other players to step up, much like Maranda Gowdy, who scored 14 points in the Shenandoah win, most of which came in the second half.

Grace Blomstedt, Bailey Hankins and Angela Mahoney will all play key roles Saturday night.

MOC-Floyd Valley meanwhile had blowout wins in their first two regional games. In the quarterfinals, they defeated OA-BCIG 71-38. They blew out Sergeant Bluff-Luton in the semifinals Wednesday night 91-43.

MOC-Floyd Valley has lost one game this season. That loss came Jan. 9 against Bishop Heelan.

The Lady Dutch have three seniors averaging double-digit points this season. Alexis Conaway is the notable senior for MOC-Floyd Valley as she leads the team in scoring, averaging 20.8 points per game. Katie Landhuis and Emily McDonald will also be key players to watch.

The game itself will be in Region 2.

In Region 1, Unity Christian takes on Spirit Lake in Sheldon. Region 3 features Clear Lake against Oelwein in Charles City. Independence will be the site in Region 4 as Crestwood takes on Mount Vernon.

Hampton-Dumont will take on Center Point-Urbana in the Region 5 final in Cedar Falls.

Region 6 features Mediapolis against Camanche as that game takes place in Wilton.

In Region 7, North Polk takes on Williamsburg in Pleasant Hill.

Finally, in Region 8, Nevada takes on Bondurant-Farrar in Ankeny.

All the 3A regional final games Saturday night are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.