Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

A week away from the opening day of the 2025 girls state basketball tournament and the field is beginning to take shape.

Eight teams have already secured state tournament spots with regional finals in Class 3A taking place on Saturday and 16 more spots will be up for grabs on Tuesday evening with regional finals scheduled for 4A and 5A.

Four Your Prep Sports area teams will battle for spots at the state tournament scheduled for March 3-8 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Before tipoff on Tuesday Your Prep Sports will take a look at all three regional finals featuring area teams beginning with the Class 4A, Region 4 title game between Clear Creek Amana and Central DeWitt.

Class 4A, Region 4

No. 12 Clear Creek Amana (15-7) at No. 5 Central DeWitt (19-4)

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Central DeWitt High School in DeWitt

Statistical leaders: Clear Creek Amana – Averie Lower, 5-11, Jr., 23.2 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 3 apg; Lena Evans, 5-8, Jr., 16.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.6 apg. Central DeWitt – Lauren Walker, 5-8, Sr., 25 ppg, 5 rpg, 2.3 apg; Ava Putman, 5-8, Jr., 11.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.8 apg.

About the Clippers: Defending 4A state champion Clear Creek Amana hits the road for the regional final seeking a third consecutive state tournament appearance and fourth in past six seasons.

Clear Creek Amana advanced to the regional final with a 65-60 win over Keokuk in the semifinals and has won six of its last seven games with the lone loss in that stretch coming to 3A top-ranked Mount Vernon.

All seven losses for the Clippers this season came to top-11 ranked teams that appeared in a regional final.

Clear Creek Amana lost three games to 3A state qualifiers Mount Vernon and Williamsburg and have losses to 4A third-ranked Maquoketa and 4A ranked teams West High, Liberty High and Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Clippers are led by the junior backcourt of Averie Lower, Lena Evans and Kennedy Stratton, a trio that combines for better than 48 of the Clippers 60.9 points per game.

About the Sabers: Central DeWitt has been among the most consistent programs in Class 4A going back nearly a decade winning at least 14 games in each of the last seven seasons while averaging nearly 17 wins per season during that span.

The Sabers reached the 4A state tournament back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022 but have lost in the regional semifinals each of the past two seasons.

Central DeWitt has navigated a challenging regular season schedule that featured seven games against top-10 ranked competition.

The four losses for the Sabers have come to third-ranked Maquoketa and 5A teams Bettendorf, Johnston and Davenport North.

The Sabers also have four wins over 5A top-10 teams with two wins over 5A fifth-ranked Pleasant Valley and victories over No. 9 City High and seventh-ranked Davenport North.

Central DeWitt is led by senior Lauren Walker (24.7 ppg) and junior Ava Putman (12.1 ppg).

Juniors Clare LeConte (8.2 ppg), Kinley Birt (5.6 ppg) and Landre Ruggeberg (5.4 ppg) combine to average 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

Who to watch: Clear Creek Amana – Junior guard Averie Lower has continued to emerge as one of the top scorers in the state averaging a career-high 23 points per game this season.

Lower ranks third in Class 4A and sixth in the state in scoring and has scored at least 20 points in four of the last five games.

Lower is shooting 50 percent from the floor including 44 percent from 3-point range while averaging a career-best 9.2 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals per game. Central DeWitt – Senior guard Lauren Walker is the one that makes it all go for the Sabers. The 5-foot-8 senior is a Lewis University commit that ranks second in Class 4A and fourth in the state in scoring at 24.7 points per game.

Walker is shooting an impressive 57 percent from the floor including 48 percent from 3-point range and 93 percent at the line.

She also averages 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

What to watch: Two of the top scoring teams in Class 4A led by two of the top scorers in the state square off in what should be among the most entertaining regional finals on the Tuesday slate.

Led by Walker the Sabers rank third in Class 4A in scoring at 65.3 points per game while Clear Creek Amana is fifth at 60.9 points per game behind Lower.

These teams are similar.

Both like to get up and down the court and feature dynamic backcourt duos with Lower and Evans for Clear Creek Amana and Walker and Putman for Central DeWitt.

Both teams are shooting better than 40 percent from the field and prefer to do their damage from the perimeter.

Central DeWitt leads 4A with 187 3-pointers this season while Clear Creek Amana is second with 183 made triples and both rank in the top four in 4A in 3-point attempts.

Defending the 3-point line will be critical for both teams along with keep the opposing top scorers in check.

An area to watch is which team can keep the opponent from putting together scoring runs.

With two teams dependent on the 3-point shot, and both very good from distance, there will likely be a few quick spurts in this game.

The team that can limit those surges may just be the team that comes out on top.

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