Kee girls basketball team plays to 18-6 season, runner-up UIC finish with young squad that could return all but one player

The Kee girls basketball team played to an 18-6 season record, marking the most wins for the Lady Hawks in six seasons, when they played their way to a 22-2 season record and their most recent trip to the Class 1A State Tournament during their 2017-2018 campaign. That 18-6 result included a 13-3 effort in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Kee bucket brigade in a tie for second place with Central Elkader, one of the three teams the Hawks split with during this winter’s UIC campaign, with those other two league splits coming to UIC champion MFL/MarMac and third-place North Fayette Valley and Kee getting the ultimate upperhand in defeating Central in a third game to advance in regional tournament play.

Those 18 victories this season were also more than the past two seasons combined and the first winning record for Kee’s girls in four seasons. It was the turn-around from last season’s 7-14 mark to this winter’s 18-6 record that veteran coach Ben Wagner noted as his squad’s greatest achievement this season. “Our greatest accomplishment this season was going from 7-14 last year to 18-6 this year,” he remarked. “Just knowing that we can win games should help us in the future.”

That turn-around took place despite the squad continuing to battle its most constant opponent, low participation numbers, as the Lady Hawks had just 12 girls on the roster from the freshman on up through senior ranks. “Low numbers once again was a big challenge for us; hopefully we can get more girls interested,” Coach Wagner hoped. The lowest participation number was in the most veteran of this season’s grade levels, as Mallory Mohn was the lone senior on this season’s squad. “Mallory Mohn, our lone senior, was a great leader for us, our captain and just a great teammate,” Coach Wagner praised.

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