The Iowa High School girls basketball team celebrates after beating Abbeville 55-42 on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, to advance to the semifinals for the first time in program history. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)

IOWA – After a dicey to their quarterfinal playoff game Thursday, the Iowa girls basketball team didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal until they made history.

The Nonselect Division II No. 4 Yellow Jackets beat No. 5 Abbeville 55-42 at home to advance to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association state tournament for the first time in program history.

“This is what you want your players to experience, and so they always want to go back,” Iowa head coach Courtnee Hollins said. “I mean this is why you play, is to get to this tournament. This is why you play.”

The tournament starts on Monday, March 3, and will run through Saturday, March 8, at Southeastern University in Hammond.

Over the first five minutes and 20 seconds of the game, there were four ties and four lead changes as each team battled for an edge. Instead of slowing down, Hollins keenly sensed the Wildcats were tiring and kept the pace of the game high. Iowa finished the first quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 19-11 lead.

“I think we could tell they were getting tired,” Hollins said. “So after the first quarter, we said, ‘Okay, it might be close right now, but let’s keep doing what we’re doing and keeping the pace, push the pace’.

“They’re going to eventually wear out, and I think that’s exactly what happened.”

Freshman Aubrey Young started the run with a 3-pointer from the corner off a pass from Toni Brown. The bucket gave the Yellow Jackets the lead for good, 12-9, with 2:40 left in the first quarter. She scored 10 of her 19 points in the first quarter. Brown had eight assists.

Young hit her third 3-pointer with 4:12 left in the second quarter to give Iowa its first double-digit lead, 24-14.

“You know that if you can come in a game hot from the three-point line, a lot of times that’s really all it takes,” Hollins said. “It’ll make a team kind of shut down, and I think that had a lot to do with it.”

Abbeville had a height advantage in the lane with 6-foot forwards Keira Gordan and Alyria Greene, but Iowa stayed aggressive on the boards to prevent the Wildcats from exploiting that advantage. While Gordan had 14 rebounds, Iowa held a slight advantage 27-26 in rebounds. Kimora Celestine led Iowa with nine rebounds.

“That is what we’ve been talking about the last two days,” Hollins said. “They’re bigger than us.

“I mean you can tell they’re a lot bigger. We knew that if we did not handle the boards, this would probably be a different game, so that’s why I’m just so proud of them. They made their minds up, and we boxed out.”