2011 Iowa Girls State Basketball Tournament

Class 4A State Championship

Des Moines East 52, Iowa City West 40

No. 1 Des Moines East lived up to its ranking and topped off a perfect season by winning the Class 4A state championship.

Markisha Wright scored 16 points and East pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat third-ranked Iowa City West 52-40.

West trailed only 29-27 heading into the fourth quarter, but East started the final period with a 12-0 run to go up 41-27 and that was too much for the young Women of Troy to overcome.

They did get the lead down to 43-36 on Mckenzie Piper's 3-pointer with 1:32 remaining. But East made nine of 10 free throws down the stretch to stay in control, to the delight of its large, vocal following.

It's the second state championship for East, which finished 26-0, and it was a long time coming. The Scarlets won the 1979 six-player championship behind Lorri Bauman, who went on to star at Drake and is in the IGHSAU Hall of Fame.

Sharnae Lamar added 14 points for East, Shronda Butts scored 11 and grabbed 10 rebounds and Nijay Gaines added eight points. All four of East's top scorers are seniors and will play Division I college basketball -- Wright at Notre Dame, Lamar at Northern Iowa, Butts at Bradley and Gaines at Missouri State.

Lamar, a super-quick 5-foot guard, had a modest 5.7 scoring average. But she came up big with 12 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a jumper, dribbling the length of the court for a layup and sinking eight straight free throws in the final 1:22.

Wright was voted captain of the all-tournament team and was the four-class tourney's overall most valuable player. She complemented her scoring with eight rebounds and four of her team's nine steals.

Sophomore Ally Disterhoft led West with 12 points. Piper finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, while Shelly Stumpff had six points and eight rebounds.

West, which starts four juniors alongside Disterhoft, finished 23-3.

Butts, Disterhoft and West's Jessica Shull joined Wright on the all-tournament team, along with Linn-Mar's Kiah Stokes and Southeast Polk's Caitlin Ingle.