Where I live, it’s too cold to go open water fishing and not cold enough to make ice for ice fishing. So I think about open water fishing and ice fishing. Following are some of those thoughts.

When you ice fish and live north of Highway 20 in northern Iowa and the month of November arrives, it’s time to think ice fishing. You never know what might happen. Here on the Iowa Great Lakes, there have been times when I have been ice fishing on Thanksgiving. OK, I know it’s only been three or four times over the past 40 years, but there is always that chance. More often, it’s somewhere around the middle of December, but the last couple of years it has even been later.

SIOUX CITY — Facing a talented and No. 9-ranked Sioux City East squad on the Black Raiders home floor resulted in a tough road loss for the young Spencer team which fell to 0-3 following a 72-19 loss.

SIOUX CITY — Spencer’s boys surrendered 21 first quarter points to Sioux City East on the road Tuesday, and by halftime the Black Raiders had doubled the Tigers score before cruising to an 82-44 win. It was the first game of the season for both teams.

“This Sioux City East team may have more length and athleticism than any of their teams in the last decade and that really caused problems for us on both ends of the floor,” Kory Petzenhauser, Spencer head coach, said.

MANSON — Two individual champions and five runners-up propelled Sioux Central girls wrestling team to 145 points and the team crown at Manson-Northwest Webster Girls Invitational Monday evening, outlasting the tourney host which finished with 120 points. Ten teams — including all Twin Lakes wrestling squads — participated in the meet.

SIOUX RAPIDS — Sioux Central’s No. 12 girls welcomed No. 1 ranked Estherville-Lincoln Central to the Rebel gym Tuesday evening, treating their guests from the north to a taste of defeat, 61-52 — overcoming a four-point halftime deficit to improve to 3-0.

Kasey Krager, the victor’s coach, said, “It was a great high school game with players really competing on both sides. Our girls made some big shots and locked in defensively in the second half and limited what they like to do.”

SIOUX RAPIDS — Owen Mills’ 14 points accounted for half of Sioux Central’s output as the Rebels opened their 2023 season with a 69-28 home loss to Estherville. The Midgets improved to 2-0 on the season while the hosts started out 0-1.

“I thought we came out with good energy but were unable to maintain it throughout the game,” Sioux Central coach Stephen Tjaden said. “It looked at times like we were trying to do a little too much and that led to some live ball turnovers.”

The Iowa High School Athletic Association introduced four new rule changes for the 2023-24 high school basketball season — two of which involve free throws — as fouls by quarter and shot clock modifications.

FORT DODGE — Both Spencer and Sioux Central’s girls were among the participants in the East vs. West team duals Tuesday in Fort Dodge. Hosted by Iowa Central Community College, teams from across the state gathered to take on the Hawkeye State’s top talent. There were several highly ranked teams from across the state competing.

Both Sioux Central and Spencer would finish the day 2-4. The Tigers surrendering multiple open weight classes.

For the second straight game to start the season, Spencer’s girls basketball team found itself in a massive first quarter crater from which they were ever able to climb out of in a 74-29 loss to No. 10 Le Mars at the Spencer field house Tuesday night. The Tigers fell 73-22 to open the season against powerhouse Ankeny at home Saturday.

“Le Mars had too much pressure for us to handle,” Spencer coach Matt Stevenson admitted. “We hit the panic button early and couldn't recover.”

SIOUX CITY — Spencer boys swim team had a chance to dip their toes into the competition pool Tuesday, traveling to Sioux City for a pentathlon with Sioux City West. Despite the Black Raiders dominance in the pool — the Tigers best finish was an eighth place by Ethan Weston in the 50-yard breaststroke. The meet had four multistyle 50-yard events and the 100-yard individual medley.

Sioux Central girls basketball, No. 12 in the Class 2A preseason poll, launched its 2023-24 campaign with a par of convincing victories against regional opponents Manson-Northwest Webster and Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn on back-to-back nights to start the week. Bradi Krager propelled her teammates with a combined 51 points in the Monday and Tuesday night wins.

Iowa Lakes’ Jazlin King (above) and Arianna Smith (below) were among the Lakers competing at the Emerson Classic last weekend. The Lakers went 1-1, falling to No. 11 Rock Valley, 52-80, on Friday. They were led by La’Nya Burnside with 10 points. On Saturday the Lakers defeated Lewis & Clark, 74-57, and were led by Jordyn Stokes with 21, and teammate Paige Martin added 10 points. (Photos submitted)

ESTHERVILLE — Two Iowa Lakes Community College women's volleyball athletes were named to the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division II Women's Volleyball All-Region teams.

Morgan Wigg and Makenzie Uribe were both name ICCAC Region 11 All-Region Honorable Mention

ESTHERVILLE — The Iowa Lakes men’s basketball team moved to 6-2 on the season with a 107-78 win over Northwestern’s JV Monday night.

The Lakers were led by Kai Evans with 20 points, Jaedan Jefferson with 17, Sam West’s 16 and Benard Omooria tallied 11.

Northwestern was led by Will Pool with 18 points.

Iowa Lakes picked up a pair of victories in Marshalltown this weekend.

The first was a 62-59 win over Bryant and Stratton, of Wisconsin.