Kirkwood falls just short in battle of top NJCAA teams

CEDAR RAPIDS - The gap between the top-echelon basketball teams in NJCAA Division I and those in Division II is negligible. It was two points Wednesday night.

That's all that separated Iowa Western from Kirkwood in a 76-74 battle of highly rated men's basketball teams at Johnson Hall. Iowa Western came in ranked 10th in D-I, Kirkwood second in D-II.

The Eagles (11-2) have lost twice this season, only to IWCC (15-1). They own a pair of wins over traditional Division I power Southeastern.

There just doesn't appear to be a lot of separation.

'No, not very much, in our eyes,” said Kirkwood Coach Bryan Petersen. 'Now maybe everyone else in D-II might view it differently, but not us. We recruit like we're the top, we want to play like we're the top, we try and coach like we're the top, all those things.

'But, you know, from time to time they are going to have a player that's just that good ... That's kind of what separates you a little bit at the very top. The one or two guys that they might have that you might not have.”

Such as Donovan Jackson, in this case. The sophomore guard is an Iowa State commit, and Cyclones Coach Steve Prohm was here to watch the point guard do his considerable thing.

Jackson finished with 16 points, nailing four clutch free throws in a row in the final minute. Iowa Western had a 69-64 lead, but a pair of 3-pointers by freshman wing Kaliph Fagan made it a 75-74 game with 4.7 seconds left.

Andre Wallace made the first of two free throws with 3.7 left, but missed the second. Kirkwood pushed the ball, but a shot from just inside half court by Hunter Rhodes glanced off the backboard and rim.

'Before the game, we talked about how there were going to be a lot of runs,” said Kirkwood guard Jacob Olson, the former Cedar Rapids Jefferson prep, who finished with 11 points. 'They were going to go on a run, we were going to go on a run. Coach said we just needed to keep at it, and we did. It was just little things. Like free throws, which I think we were 10 for 19. There's the game.”

Kirkwood led throughout the first half, though IWCC went on an 18-2 run to close, leading at the break, 36-28. It was as much as a 12-point Reivers lead early in the second half, with Kirkwood rallying to take as much as a three-point edge, the last time with 6:44 remaining.

'At home, that's a game we should have won,” Petersen said. 'Don't get me wrong, they are a good team. But I know the team we've got in there (the locker room). We just weren't good enough, I wasn't good enough to get us the win tonight.”

Kirkwood shot 39 percent from the field. Fagan led the Eagles with 17 points, with beefy 6-foot-6 freshman forward Da'Rion King coming off the bench for his first significant minutes of the season and 13 points.

Kirkwood had issues, as every opponent does with 6-8 Iowa Western center Thik Bol. He led the NJCAA last season in blocked shots and had nearly two handfuls Wednesday.

Lansing (Mich.) Community College is the only team ranked ahead of the Eagles in Division II.

'Our team is really good,” Olson said. 'We have a lot of good pieces, a lot of weapons. There's no dropoff from the bench to the starters ... We're a national championship contender, for sure. We have a poster in our locker room counting down the days to the national tournament.”

'This is a program that should compete for a national championship, no doubt,” said Petersen, in his third season after replacing long-time successful head coach, now athletics director Doug Wagemester. 'With how it has been built up by Coach Wags, we should compete for one every year. This group has that chance. We've just got to get better.”

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AT JOHNSON HALL

IOWA WESTERN (76): Marquel Beasley 6-8 3-4 15, Thik Bol 2-8 4-5 8, Donovan Jackson 5-16 4-5 16, Isaiah Walton 1-6 2-2 4, Andre Wallace 5-12 1-3 14, De'Quon Lake 1-1 0-0 2, Dominique Bell 1-2 0-0 2, Alex Peacock 4-7 2-3 13, Donovan Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Andre Harris 1-2 0-2 2. Totals 26-63 17-25 76.

KIRKWOOD (74): Josh Bartlett 4-9 0-0 11, Josh Meier 1-4 0-0 2, Jacob Olson 3-5 2-4 11, Hunter Rhodes 3-9 1-1 7, Nick Richards 2-10 0-1 4, Shakur Triplett 0-1 0-0 0, Deantae Woods 1-3 0-0 2, Cristen Wilson 3-9 1-2 7, Kaliph Fagan 5-11 3-5 17, Byron Harp 0-0 0-0 0, Da'Rion King 5-9 3-6 13. Totals 27-70 10-19 74.

Halftime - Iowa Western 36, Kirkwood 28. 3-point goals - Iowa Western 7-22 (Jackson 2-7, Walton 0-1, Wallace 3-8, Peacock 2-5, Harris 0-1), Kirkwood 10-24 (Bartlett 3-5, Olson 3-4, Rhodes 0-4, Richards 0-3, Woods 0-1, Wilson 0-1, Fagan 4-6). Rebounds - Iowa Western 38 (Wallace, Bol 8), Kirkwood 44 (Wilson 10). Total fouls - Iowa Western 18, Kirkwood 21. Fouled out - None. Technical foul - Fagan. Turnovers - Iowa Western 13, Kirkwood 13.

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