DES MOINES, IOWA (KCAU) – For the third straight year, it was an all-Siouxland Class 2A State Championship on Friday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, but top-seeded Central Lyon would be the ones coming away with ultimate glory over three-seed Western Christian, downing the Wolfpack 72-59 for the program’s first ever 2A State title.

The Lions entered with back-to-back trips to the 2A title game, while the Wolfpack searched for its 11th overall State crown. Central Lyon though would secure the fast start taking a 16-13 lead after the first quarter, despite a buzzer-beating jumper from Western Christian’s Chandler Polloma to swing the momentum towards the Wolfpack.

Western Christian fed off it in the second quarter, going to a variety of scoring outlets to tied the game at 32-32 heading into halftime. By that point, Central Lyon’s Andrew Austin had 12 points while Uchan Harberts collected five points.

The Lions stayed true to their mission out of the break, going to Josh Elbert who hit a big three towards the end of the third quarter to extend the Lions lead to six. The team shot 60 percent from the floor in the game, and a mark they’d reach with a sharpshooting fourth quarter effort.

In spite of the Wolfpack continuing to cut into the lead with buckets from leading scorer Tate VanRegenmorter, who finished with 19 points, Iowa football commit Zach Lutmer would flex his athletic ability in the final stretch of the game. The senior ended the night with a team-high 25 points, one of three Lions to finish the day in double-digit scoring. It would prove to be the Lions best quarter, outscoring the Wolfpack 22-15 in the final eight minutes, sealing the Lions 72-59 victory while etching their names in school history.

“That’s super special, Last year we came up a little bit short, and this year to get it back is super special to me,” Central Lyon senior guard Zach Lutmer said.

“Great feeling… last year was not so great but this year couldn’t have couldn’t have gone any better,” Central Lyon senior center Andrew Austin said.

“Making it the state, even making existing State is really tough,” Western Christian sophomore guard Kaden VanRegenmorter said. “And then making it to the championship game, not many teams do that. Just two teams do that in the whole state,”

“I mean, it was of a special group,” Western Christian senior forward Tate VanRegenmorter said. “We kind of came out of our losses. I mean, later on after we came up short, we didn’t play our game but it was an awesome season. Fun to be in front of your own guys all the time, especially my brother.”

As for the Class 2A All-Tournament Team, Western Christian’s VanRegenmorter duo of Tate and Kaden made the list while Central Lyon’s big three of Reece Vander Zee, Zach Lutmer, and 2A All-Tournament Captain Andrew Austin all earned spots.