Fair to say

Wildcats remain unbeaten, hope to stay under radar

By Kristi Nixon

RICEVILLE — Even though Riceville improved to 6-0 while beating the only other previously undefeated team in the Iowa Star North on Tuesday, Dec. 22 and honored senior O’Malley Fair for a new school mark and milestone, both she and coach Darcy Fair hope the Wildcats continue to fly under the radar.

That means if they remain unranked, that is completely fine with them.

“I don’t really care about that,” O’Malley Fair said. “We’re just playing hard and playing to win. I’m not all about the fame, just playing together, for Riceville and as a team.”

Coach Fair added, “I think we’re okay if we’re not ranked. We play game by game, so now we have a new game. We try not to think too far down the road. What is in front of us? Rankings are not…stay the course.”

But there was still plenty to celebrate, knocking off previously unbeaten Waterloo Christian, 62-46, overcoming a hard-charging team that temporarily had the lead in the third quarter, tied the game three times in the second half and kept it close until a little more than five minutes to go.

“We knew it was a tough game going in,” O’Malley Fair said. “Stay aggressive, stay confident, playing together. One player down. I don’t even know what to say.”

She finished with 13 points against the Regents, held to just three rebounds.

“They were undefeated coming in and we knew that they were going to be tough,” coach Fair said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game and we practiced some things just to prepare for Reagan Wheeler who does a really good job inside. They came out in a box-and-one on O’Malley which is something we hadn’t seen yet this year.

“It gave us some fits a little bit and we, going in at the half tied, the girls really focused in and knew what they had to do in the high-pressure situations. Every piece of the puzzle. Coach Beran’s idea is to use every piece of the puzzle this year for us to be successful together as a team.”

Joy Beran had an overall solid game with 24 points, including 7-of-8 from the free throw line as she often drove to the basket and was fouled; finishing with a double-double by adding 11 rebounds and also coming up with four steals and handing out two assists.

After the Wildcats pulled away late, Riceville gave O’Malley Fair a sign, balloons and a basketball to commemorate her record and mark. She hit seven three-pointers in the team’s previous game against Clarksville to eclipse the previous mark by Andrea (Noble) Bauer.

“I mean, I just shot a few,” O’Malley Fair said of the three-point mark. “I was starting to make them, so I just kept shooting. I don’t know, they just kept going in. I’m playing for my team, you know.

“(I) stay aggressive (for my rebounds).”

The full story and more photos appear in the Jan. 1 print edition of the Enterprise Journal