Hawks fall to No. 13 Mediapolis

Injury to Sandoval

She was asking her what she wanted to be when she grows up, what’s her favorite subject in school. Kenna, of course, said math was her favorite subject, and she wanted to go into something with accounting and finance. She was responsive, but she was scared, like all of us were.”

Taylor Hickey, Central Lee girls Head Coach

MEDIAPOLIS — Central Lee’s girls basketball team suffered a 62-45 loss to Mediapolis on Tuesday night, but the immediate concern after the game was the injury to freshman Kenna Sandoval.
The game was stopped with 1:09 left when Sandoval suffered what appeared to be a neck injury after becoming entangled with a Mediapolis player going for an offensive rebound. Sandoval was taken by ambulance to Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center in Burlington.
Central Lee coach Taylor Hickey said Sandoval was awake and responding to the trainer before the ambulance arrived.
“The trainer did a great job carrying on a conversation with her,” Hickey said. “She was asking her what she wanted to be when she grows up, what’s her favorite subject in school. Kenna, of course, said math was her favorite subject, and she wanted to go into something with accounting and finance. She was responsive, but she was scared, like all of us were.”
The two coaching staffs decided to end the game at that point.
“I really appreciate (Mediapolis coach) Todd (Borrison) and everything he did,” Hickey said.
Sandoval, a freshman, had 12 points for the Hawks (4-7 overall, 3-5 SEI Superconference South Division).
“She’s always a huge asset to our team, just because of her presence inside,” Hickey said. “She’s young. I coach her as a senior, at the varsity level, but she’s new to this. The good thing about Kenna is she takes coaching really well. She’s a great kid.”
The Hawks kept pace with the No. 13 (Class 2A) Bulldogs (9-2, 7-2) for most of the first quarter before Mediapolis went on a 15-1 run that lasted until early in the second quarter. The Bulldogs had three 3-pointers in the run on a night in which they had 10.
Payton Bush led Mediapolis with 28 points.
“Number one, they shot the ball out of the park,” Hickey said. “Their point guard (Bush), she’s a great defender. She would take our point guards out of it, knock the ball away, and come down and hit a three.”
It was the third loss in four days for the Hawks.
“We’ve gotten in the mode the last couple of games of being there until the very end, and letting up,” Hickey said. “Tonight, we wanted to come together and have some fun. Mediapolis is a good team, I knew they were going to come out and play as hard as they could, as always. They just had that big run that took us out of it.”
Makayla Morrison led Central Lee with 17 points.