Top-ranked Iowa City West blows past C.R. Kennedy, 83-53, loses top guard Devontae Lane to ejection

CEDAR RAPIDS — What was a night of mostly great for the Iowa City West boys' basketball team turned out to be overshadowed by one bad. A really big bad.

Class 4A's top-ranked Trojans pulled apart Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 83-53, Tuesday night, surgical most of the way in obliterating a good Cougars team on its home floor. Impressive doesn't begin to describe it.

But things went awry in the third quarter when guard Devontae Lane, a three-year starter, was called for a foul after losing control of his dribble around midcourt. Despite not being overly demonstrative in his displeasure at the call, he was assessed a technical foul by official Robert Smith, the former University of Iowa football player.

Lane began walking toward the West bench but didn't make it before Smith T-ed him up again. That's an ejection.

'I picked up a foul, and I was walking over to him and said 'What'd I do?'' Lane said. 'He said 'I don't want to hear that.' He looked at me like he was already just waiting to give me a T. I was like 'Are you going to give me a T for that?' He gave me a T, and I shook my head and walked off. Then he gave me another one.'

Lane automatically misses West's next game, which happens to be Friday night at second-ranked Dubuque Senior. Talk about horrific timing.

'I don't think I've ever had that happen,' West Coach Steve Bergman said. 'Hasn't even happened to me, believe it or not. It shouldn't happen. We talk a lot about it. It happened, we move on. It's just like you have an injury or whatever. I guess we like things hard.'

West (13-1) moved the basketball so well in building a 44-18 halftime lead. The Trojans came in leading 4A in scoring (74.3 points per game) and field-goal percentage, numbers that didn't go down any here.

It seemed like open shot after open shot, both from the interior and perimeter. West finished at 67 percent from the field, getting 25 points from superb sophomore Patrick McCaffery and 16 from Lane.

'We did a lot of good stuff,' Bergman said. 'That first half, we were sharp. Good defensively. It's always kind of a challenge with what they do on defense. I thought we handled that pretty well. We did a little bit of everything. We made some shots, got some easy ones, got some breakouts.'

This appears to be a sink-or-swim part of the season for Kennedy (10-5), which was ranked No. 1 before Christmas but which has dropped five of its last seven games. The team had a player's only meeting postgame, as it looks for answers that will return it to the level it played at early.

Drake Brewster led Kennedy with 17 points.

'At some point, the breaking point happens,' Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen said. 'It happened to the kids tonight. We've got to get back to some fundamentals, get back to (doing) some really good things. Right now, we are just kind of OK at a lot of things.'

AT C.R. KENNEDY

IOWA CITY WEST (83): Nate Disterhoft 0-0 0-0 0, Patrick McCaffery 10-12 3-5 25, Izaya Ono-Fullard 1-4 0-1 2, Devontae Lane 7-13 6-7 14, Connor McCaffery 4-7 6-7 14, Evan Flitz 3-3 0-0 9, Hakeem Odunsi 2-2 2-2 6, Seybian Sims 4-5 3-6 11, Josh Van Roekel 0-0 0-0 0, Dante Eldridge 0-0 0-0 0, Hirsche Henstrom 0-0 0-0 0, Mulhim Nasr 0-0 0-0 0, Ahmed Idris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-46 14-22 83.

C.R. KENNEDY (53): Drake Brewster 7-13 3-5 17, Derrick Diggins 3-8 0-0 6, Matt Berst 3-7 4-6 10, Malik Haynes 2-9 2-2 6, Nick Duehr 1-2 1-2 4, Jackson Foley 1-3 3-4 5, Ki Jenkins 1-1 0-0 2, Isaiah Harris 1-3 0-0 3, Jack Wetzel 0-1 0-0 0, Jake Olejniczak 0-0 0-0 0, Aijay Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Duncan Schultejans 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Carlson 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan King 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Basquin 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Koch 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 13-19 53.

Halftime — West 44, Kennedy 18. 3-point goals — West 7-16 (P. McCaffery 2-2, Ono-Fullard 0-3, Lane 2-6, C. McCaffery 0-2, Flitz 3-3), Kennedy 2-10 (Diggins 0-3, Berst 0-1, Haynes 0-3, Duehr 0-1, Harris 1-1, Wetzel 0-1). Rebounds — West 29 (P. McCaffery 10), Kennedy 25 (Brewster 8). Total fouls — West 15, Kennedy 17. Fouled out — None. Technical fouls — Lane 2. Ejection — Lane. Turnovers — West 11, Kennedy 13.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com