The Iowa High School Athletic Association, Thursday, released its district football assignments in all six classes, which are effective for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The Daily Nonpareil reports three schools are moving up at least one class: Lewis Central (Class 3-A to 4-A), A-H-S-T (Class A to 1-A) and Underwood (A to 1-A).

Four southwest Iowa schools are moving down at least one class: St. Albert (1-A to A), Tri-Center (1-A to A), Clarinda Academy (2-A to A) and East Mills (A to Eight-Man). Also from the region, Charter Oak-Ute will play a JV-only schedule for the next two years.

The next step is for schools to submit priority lists for non-district opponents. The IHSAA then takes that information to formulate the non-district portion of the schedule. The complete schedules are expected to be released by late February.
Here are the new districts involving schools in southwest Iowa:
Class 4-A
District 1: Ames, Ankeny, Des Moines East, Sioux City North, Southeast Polk, Thomas Jefferson.
District 2: Des Moines North, Des Moines Roosevelt, Johnston, Lewis Central, Sioux City East, West Des Moines Dowling.
District 3: Abraham Lincoln, Ankeny Centennial, Des Moines Hoover, Des Moines Lincoln, Sioux City West, West Des Moines Valley
Class 3-A
District 1: Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley, Denison-Schleswig, Le Mars, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, Sioux City Heelan, Spencer, Storm Lake.
District 8: ADM, Atlantic, Creston, Dallas Center-Grimes, Glenwood, Harlan, Winterset.
Class 2-A
District 8: Carroll Kuemper, Clarinda, East Sac County, Prairie Valley, Red Oak, Shenandoah, West Central Valley.
Class 1-A
District 1: A-H-S-T, IKM-Manning, Missouri Valley, OA-BCIG, Treynor, Underwood, West Monona.
Class A
District 1: Audubon, Griswold, Logan-Magnolia, Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto, Riverside, St. Albert, Tri-Center, Westwood.
District 8: Bedford, Clarinda Academy, Earlham, Martensdale-St. Marys, Mount Ayr, Nodaway Valley, Pleasantville, Southeast Warren.
Eight-Man
District 1: Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley, Exira-EHK, Kingsley-Pierson, Newell-Fonda, River Valley, West Harrison, Woodbine.
District 8: CAM, East Mills, Essex, Fremont-Mills, Lenox, Nishnabotna, Sidney, Stanton

BOYS BASKETBALL
Lenox 55, Central Decatur, Leon 29
Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto 69, East Sac County 63
Martensdale-St. Marys 66, West Central Valley, Stuart 37
OA-BCIG 71, Siouxland Community Christian 61
Wayne, Corydon 36, East Union, Afton 32
Corner Conference Tournament
Semi-Finals
East Mills 59, Fremont Mills, Tabor 50
Sidney 53, Heartland Christian 50

GIRLS BASKETBALL
Bishop Heelan Catholic, Sioux City 52, Sioux City, East 39
Central Decatur, Leon 71, Lenox 23
Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto 67, East Sac County 63
OA-BCIG 65, Siouxland Community Christian 30

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State is refuting reports that it prevented guard Bubu Palo from transferring to another school by delaying the decision in his student-conduct case. The university says Thursday that athletic director Jamie Pollard told Palo’s attorney, Matt Boles, that Iowa State would support a waiver for Palo to transfer. That’s after Palo was kicked off the team Aug. 30 by President Steven Leath.

Iowa State also says that Palo would have been able to transfer after the fall semester had started, but that neither Palo nor Boles gave the university an official transfer request. Palo was reinstated by a district court judge last week in a decision publicly criticized by Pollard. Palo is listed on Iowa State’s roster for its home game Saturday against Kansas State.

w/ Jim Field

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PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Walt Lemon, Jr. scored 28 points, shooting 50 percent from the field, to lead Bradley to a 69-65 victory over Northern Iowa on Wednesday night. Auston Barnes had 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Braves (8-12, 3-4 Missouri Valley Conference). Omari Grier added nine points and four rebounds.

Northern Iowa led 32-29 at the half but Lemon came out of the break to score eight points in the first three minutes of the second period to put Bradley up by one. With 30 seconds left to play, Lemon hit a jumper and sank 2 of 2 from the line to help give the Braves the edge they needed to win.

Seth Tuttle scored 20 points with seven rebounds for the Panthers (10-9, 4-3) who hit just 36.7 percent from the field overall.

NEW YORK (AP) – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andrew Pierce has been suspended for 50 games following a positive test for an amphetamine under baseball’s minor league drug program.  The suspension, announced Wednesday by the commissioner’s office, will begin with the start of the New York-Penn League season this summer.

A right-hander who turns 23 on Sunday, Pierce was taken by St. Louis out of Southern Mississippi in the eighth round of last June’s amateur draft. He went 2-2 with a 2.11 ERA in seven starts and five relief appearances last year for the State College Spikes of the Class A NYP League.

There have been nine suspensions this year under the minor league program.

 GIRLS BASKETBALL
 Corner Conference Tournament
 Semi-Finals
Fremont Mills, Tabor 56, Heartland Christian 29
Stanton 52, East Mills 30

AMES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Board of Regents is appealing a district court’s decision to reinstate Iowa State basketball player Bubu Palo to the team.  The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Attorney General’s Office filed a motion Wednesday on behalf of the board that seeks an immediate stay of a Webster County district judge’s recent order to let Palo rejoin the team. The motion says the district court ruling deprives the board and Iowa State of its legal authority to establish and enforce student conduct.

Palo was suspended in 2012 after being charged with second-degree sexual assault. The charge was later dropped, but Palo was kicked off the team because officials determined he had violated student code of conduct.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – Nik Stauskas scored 26 points, and No. 21 Michigan held off No. 10 Iowa 75-67 on Wednesday night to remain unbeaten in the Big Ten.  The Wolverines (14-4, 6-0) have won eight straight to set up a showdown in East Lansing on Saturday night with rival Michigan State, the Big Ten’s only other unbeaten team in conference play.

Aaron White scored 14 of Iowa’s points in a row down the stretch, but it wasn’t enough to rally the Hawkeyes (15-4, 4-2) from an 11-point deficit. White and Melsahn Basabe scored 17 points each for Iowa. Glenn Robinson III had 14 points for Michigan and Jordan Morgan added 12.

Third-ranked Michigan State (18-1, 7-0) will bring an 11-game winning streak into Saturday’s game.

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) – Aaron Hawley scored 19 points and Richard Carter added 12 as Drake snapped a five-game losing streak with a 57-54 victory over Southern Illinois on Wednesday night.  Desmar Jackson scored 15 points for the Salukis (6-14, 2-5 Missouri Valley). Tyler Smithpeters added 12 points as did Sean O’Brien, who also had 11 rebounds.

Southern Illinois trailed 32-23 at the half and by 13 with 9:22 left in the game after Jordan Daniels was fouled and made three free throws. But Jackson led the Salukis back, scoring 11 points in a 17-4 run that tied the game at 52 with 59 seconds left. Aaron Hawley responded with a 3-pointer for Drake (11-8, 2-5) before Smithpeters’ basket made it 55-54 with 9 seconds left. Richard Carter sank two free throws for Drake with 8 seconds remaining and Dawson Verhines missed a 3-pointer for SIU to end the game.