Metro Sports Report

Paige named MVC Athlete of the Year

Linn-Mar senior Marcus Paige has been chosen Mississippi Division Athlete of the Year by Mississippi Valley Conference boys basketball coaches.

Paige, who will play his college ball at North Carolina, leads the state in scoring with a 28.4 average.

Paige and Dubuque Wahlert's Jake May were unanimous picks on the Mississippi Division team. Cody Bell of Kennedy also was a first team pick.

Taylor Olson of Jefferson and Matt MacDougall of Prairie were unanimous first team selections on the Valley team. Iowa City West, which takes an undefeated record into next week's state tournament, had three first team choices: Dondre Alexander, Jeremy Morgan and Wyatt Lohaus.

A game for the ages and a peek ahead.

Our radio station - KGYM - has a pair of frequencies, 1600 AM and 106.3 FM. If we had a third channel, as ESPN television does for Classic games, Tuesday night's beauty between Linn-Mar and Kennedy would be played continuously for the next several days!

Undoubtedly the substate final boys basketball game played at Prairie will go down as one of the greatest games played in the annals of boys Metro basketball. One team, Linn-Mar, was looking to extend its record of appearances at the state tournament to nine. The other, Kennedy, was looking to put an end to the streak and go back to Des Moines for the first time since 2008.

The game had it all. Good shooting, tough defense, key runs and an improbable comeback.

It also had two amazing individual performances. Of course everyone will long remember Marcus Paige's final game in town. Forty-eight points, terrific defense and a stretch where he single-handedly put the Lions on his back.

His coach, Chris Robertson, put it best when talking with us after the game: "He became Superman at the end."

No.5 Saints bracing for big hurdle

The Ankeny Hawkettes have two future Division I college basketball players on their team and 2,300 students in their high school.

The Xavier Saints don't have any Division I players on their club and only 800 students in their school.

Ankeny's seniors are playing in their fourth straight state tournament, whereas Xavier's seniors are playing in their first.

They'll meet Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Class 4A state tournament at spacious Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

"I hope we don't turn into Hickory at Butler University and go, 'Oh, look at this place,'" said Xavier Coach Tom Lilly, referring to the iconic basketball movie "Hoosiers."

"There's always that fear, because we haven't been there," he said. "It would be different if our kids had been down there and seen the vastness of it and the sounds and the noise and the thud. The ball 'thuds' differently on the floor down there.

CR's Cassill 22nd at Daytona 500

DAYTONA, Fla. -- Landon Cassill was in second place in the Daytona 500 for more than two hours Monday night.

Then the race restarted.

Cassill, from Cedar Rapids, finished 22nd at the rain- and fire-delayed Dayton 500 auto race.

Cassill, 22, found himself in second place when the race was stopped with 40 laps remaining following a crash between racer Juan Pablo Montoya and a dryer truck that was on the track during a caution flag. The dryer, powered by jet fuel, burst into flames. The race was delayed more than two hours while the fire was extinguished and the track was put back into racing condition.