Winning the championship in a 17-team conference tournament isn’t supposed to be that easy.

But the IKM-Manning boys made it look that way last weekend, pounding their opponents in the semifinals and finals. The Wolves hammered Boyer Valley 85-45 in the South Division final on Friday and Woodbury Central 76-37 in the overall final on Saturday.

“I thought we played about as well as we can play the last two games," IKM-Manning coach Keith Wagner said. “We just really were able to get out and use our fast break well. We shot the ball well, and we guarded with some urgency."

At 19-0, IKM-Manning maintains its spot atop The World-Herald’s western Iowa ratings for Class 2-A/1-A schools. With East, North and then Heelan, Sioux City keeps the top three positions among the Class 4-A/3-A ratings.

IKM-Manning is back on top in a season in which it had to replace its top three scorers from last year’s 20-2 squad: Nate Wall, Zach Jahn and Ryan Eberly. The Wolves are doing well with an all-senior starting lineup that is extremely balanced: 6-foot-1 Jerad Croghan (12.8 ppg), 6-5 Rick Blake (10.8), 5-10 Bryce Irlbeck (9.8), 6-1 Jarad Gaskill (9.0) and 6-0 Tyler Bruck (8.1).

The top two scorers off the bench, 6-3 Tyler Muhlbauer (5.5) and 6-4 Colten Ramsey (4.0) also are seniors. The eighth senior on the team is 6-0 Matt Vogel.

“Coming into (the season), I thought we’d be a little better defensively,’’ Wagner said. “I had a sense that we’d have a little bit more juice defensively. I was concerned a little about perimeter shooting.’’

Bruck has been the Wolves’ top outside shooter, hitting an excellent 40 of 102 (39.2 percent) from 3-point range. He hit 5 of 8 from downtown in the win over Woodbury Central, when the Wolves were 7 of 15 as a team.

IKM-Manning isn’t overly big inside, but it will battle anyone on the boards. The rebounding leaders are Gaskill (6.8), Croghan (6.3) and Blake (5.2).

Irlbeck, the quarterback on the Wolves’ semifinal football team, also plays that role extremely well on the hardwood. The heady senior averages 6.1 assists and 3.5 steals, both team bests.

This is only the second season that IKM and Manning have joined forces for basketball. The transition has been so seamless that it might seem as if they’ve been together longer.

“When you come together, you know you have a lot of similarities,’’ Wagner said. “You have competitive coaches, and kids that are used to getting out and competing. The coaches all get along well, and the kids all get along well.’’

Turning to the large schools, the district and substate pairings should be announced by the Iowa High School Athletic Association this week for Class 3-A and 4-A teams.

Contact the writer:

444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

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