Metro Sports Report

J-Hawks beat Wahlert with free throws

The free throw line can often be an intimidating place. On Tuesday night, Jefferson found it to be quite the contrary as they made themselves at home at the charity stripe.

The J-Hawks made 24 of 26 free throws, most of them late in the fourth quarter, as they went on to defeat Dubuque Wahlert, 63-54, at the Jefferson gym.

“They had ice water in their veins,” said Jefferson Coach Stu Ordman of his group of savvy foul shooters. “Twenty-four for 26 is not bad in my book.”

Knapp nets 26 as Marion girls dance to win

With their sixth win in the last seven games, the Marion girls are girding themselves for the stretch run.

“We’re playing good when we should,” said senior shooter Beth Knapp after torching Independence for 26 points in a runaway 54-35 victory at home Tuesday night.

Coming together when it counts under new coach Corby Laube, the Indians (12-6) remain in hot pursuit of the Wamac West title with a 9-3 conference mark.

Hembera is the hero for Cedar Valley

MONTEZUMA - The Cedar Valley Christian girls basketball team trailed by four points with less than 10 seconds left against Montezuma Tuesday night and it looked hopeless.

That's when Shelby Hembera, a scoring machine all night, took over and led the Huskies to a thrilling 40-39 victory.

Hembera scored, got fouled and made the free throw to pull Cedar Valley within 39-38 in the final seconds, but she wasn't done yet.

MSR passes 2 million pageviews

Carl Whiting and I have had a running gag ever since we launched the Metro Sports Report website on Jan. 3, 2011.

At the beginning, we tried to guess how long it would take before we had 1,000 pageviews. Then it was 5,000 pageviews. Then 10,000.

Well, along came Joel Northrup and his deep-felt conviction that he would not wrestle a girl at the state tournament. That was in February of 2011 and helped put us on the map, with media outlets all over the country citing the MSR for breaking the story.

We hit 10,000 pageviews a lot faster than we ever would have imagined, thanks to Joel.