Matt Levins - The Hawk Eye / Photo Credit - Jen Levins
IOWA CITY — The last time the Notre Dame High School boys basketball team walked off the court at Iowa City High, they had tears in their eyes after letting a late lead slip away in a crushing substate final loss.
There was no way the Nikes were going to let history repeat.
With a berth in the state tournament once again hanging in the balance, Notre Dame found a way to hold on this time, coming away with a 63-53 victory over Calamus-Wheatland in a Class 1A substate final Saturday at Iowa City High.
Fourth-ranked Notre Dame (24-2) will play sixth-ranked Bellevue (22-3) in a Class 1A state quarterfinal game at 3:45 p.m. March 10 at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines.
It will be Notre Dame’s first trip to the state tournament since 2009.
Bellevue advanced with a 66-55 win over East Marshall on Saturday at Solon.
Calamus-Wheatland bows out with a 23-3 record.
Three-hundred and sixty-five days after walking off the court at Iowa City High with tears in their eyes, the Nikes were jumping for joy and celebrating deep into the night.
“It’s great. I’ve never felt like this before. I’m just super proud of our team that we were able to stay together and stick that one out,” said Notre Dame senior all-state guard Shay Stephens, who scored 18 points, tying teammate Eli Oleson for game-high honors. “Last year was heartbreaking. We worked so hard just to get here. We led the fist half and kind of let it go in the second half. This was huge. We just wanted to keep battling and reach our goal, which was to get to state and hopefully go pretty far at state.”
On a day when the Warriors were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Stephens in an effort to slow him down, he was able to find his teammates, who knocked down clutch shot after clutch shot.
“We knew they were going to press, so I was just staying back, trying to go to the paint and Shay did a good job passing me the ball when I was open,” Oleson said. “That’s the fun part about playing with Shay is you get a lot of free points, easy points, especially since a lot of their effort goes towards him.”
Just like in last year’s substate final loss to North Linn, Notre Dame built an early cushion. The Nikes led by 12 after the first quarter and led by as many as 15 points in the first half.
Trailing 45-33 heading into the fourth quarter, Calamus-Wheatland made the Nikes and their fans squirm.
The Warriors trimmed the Nikes’ advantage to just eight points on three different occasions in the final eight minutes, the last coming on a drive down the lane by Aidan Yaddof with 1 minute, 22 seconds left.
This time, the Nikes found a way to seal the deal.
Notre Dame junior Tatum Warner, the smallest player on the court at 5-foot-7, came up with two big rebounds, one of which led to a jumper by Griffin Kies.
“They weren’t really falling tonight, but that was too open to not take and it felt nice right off my hand,” said Kies, who scored 12 points. “It was huge.”
Warner’s stat line shows zero points, but he played a pivotal role in the outcome.
“I always try to work my hardest. I take a lot of pride in getting rebounds and steals on the defensive side because I’m not the best shooter,” Warner said. “I just jump as high as I can and see how high I can get to get the ball. I saw the ball and I just went up and got it. Football definitely helps with that.”
The Nikes, who have struggled at the free-throw line much of the year, went 5-for-6 in the final minute, including 2-for-2 each by Stephens and Oleson.
“It’s a confidence thing,” Stephens said. “We didn’t want to throw the game away because of our free throws. It was super important that we step up to the line and sink them with confidence.”
This time, the Nikes were celebrating a long-awaited trip to the state tournament, the heartbreak of 2025 just a distant memory.
“We had more energy, more confidence knowing we were there last year and we’ve already been through it,” said senior forward Payne Prottsman, who finished with seven points. “It was definitely a little scary going into that fourth quarter, just knowing what happened last year. We didn’t want it to happen this year and we proved that it won’t happen again.”
“You don’t want to feel that feeling again, losing before you go to state. We came out and we were going to leave it all on the floor,” Oleson said. “We had some motivation going into the game. We were here last year. It was a tough loss. We were motivated to come in and win.”
L.J. Harris added six points for the Nikes and Kellan Porter added two points.
“It’s awesome. I can’t even comprehend how amazing it is,” Warner said.
“I was full of emotions,” Stephens said. “It was nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Obviously we’ve all worked super hard. I’ve worked my who high school career, especially after last year’s loss. I have been constantly in the gym working on my game.”
Notre Dame coach Dan Kies stood back, watching his players celebrate, a smile beaming from ear to ear.
What a difference a year makes.
“There’s a point there where we had a big cushion and we kind of let them back in. It looks like the walls are collapsing around us. We didn’t panic. We need to rebound. We need to play a little better defense and then just take care of the ball,” Coach Kies said. “It’s hard to even think back about (2025). Last year was obviously a huge disappointment, but we’ve had losses that hurt more than that, too. It wasn’t the end of the world. We were still proud of what we did. We got beat by a really good team. It was more about, ‘Hey, keep your heads up and let’s see if we can get back.’ This year it’s ecstatic that these guys could get over the hump and get Notre Dame back to Des Moines.”