Can Kennedy hold down Paige and Linn-Mar again?

CEDAR RAPIDS -- He can take pride in saying he played a huge role in Marcus Paige having his worst shooting night of the basketball season. As a reward, Darius Fuller gets to try and defend the Linn-Mar star again.

Is that really a reward?

"I just have to do what I can on him," said Fuller, the Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior guard. "Just keep him to as minimum (of points) as I can."

It's eighth-ranked Kennedy and No. 5 Linn-Mar in a highly anticipated Class 4A substate final Tuesday night at Cedar Rapids Prairie. These programs have had a lot of big games over the years, and this is another one.

The winner goes to Des Moines next week for the state tournament. If it's Linn-Mar, it'd be for a record ninth consecutive year.

That's certainly no given, especially since Kennedy (16-6) won the only regular-season game, 56-51. Linn-Mar (18-4) didn't have injured forward Matt Lassen, however, an Albany commit who missed most of the season with a severe concussion.

"Everyone's been looking forward to this game," said Kennedy center Elliott Christians. "We played really well against them last time, but last time doesn't matter. What matters is this time. We need to play a great game."

Kennedy's bread and butter is its physical man-to-man defense, and it disrupted Linn-Mar's offense and contributed to Paige - the North Carolina recruit - making just 3-of-16 shots from the field earlier this month. Kennedy knows holding down Class 4A's leading scorer (27 points per game) again will be a tough chore.

"We can't take any possessions off," Christians said.

Second-ranked Iowa City West (22-0) looks for a return trip to Wells Fargo Arena when it plays Bettendorf (15-7) in a 4A substate final at Muscatine. The Trojans placed fourth at state last season and are decided favorites Tuesday night.

The same can't be said for Cedar Rapids Jefferson (14-8), which is a decided underdog in its 4A substate final against No. 3 Cedar Falls (20-2) at Northern Iowa's McLeod Center. The Tigers have won 17 games in a row, including 64-49 over Jeff late in the regular season.

It'll be a matchup of outstanding point guards in James Harrington of Cedar Falls and Taylor Olson of Jefferson.

"David versus Goliath," said Jefferson Coach Stu Ordman. "We have a significantly small room for error. We have to play pretty close to flawless, but that's what we're striving to do."