Late May shot gives Wahlert 1-point win over Kennedy

CEDAR RAPIDS - For Cedar Rapids Kennedy, one great quarter wasn't enough to offset two OK ones and a horrid one.

“We didn't deserve to win,” Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana said, bluntly, after Dubuque Wahlert edged his team, 52-51, Tuesday night at Kennedy. “When you come out and play like that the first game after break, don't show up to play the first half, don't follow the game plan, you don't deserve to win.”

Kennedy trailed by 19 points late in the first half before rallying and somehow giving itself a literal shot to win. Point guard Trevor Heitland's jumper from the top of the 3-point circle bounced off the rim at the buzzer to give Wahlert a victory it seemed to have sewn up at halftime.

Give the Cougars an ‘A' for coming back. Fontana said to give them an ‘F' for having to in the first place.

“We came out horrible,” Heitland said.

“I've had teams come off the break and come out like gangbusters excited to play again,” Fontana said. “These guys showed passivity. Give Wahlert credit because they took advantage. We'll find out Friday night what we're made of. I just told them we'll start making personnel changes because I'm not going to watch that first half again. I'd rather get beat with kids that are going to be aggressive.”

It wasn't too bad early, as Wahlert rode the spectacular play of guard Riley McCarron to a 17-14 lead after a quarter. But, oh, the second quarter was a hot mess.

Kennedy (4-2, 3-2 MVC Mississippi Division) apparently forgot it had a decided height advantage against a team whose tallest player was 6-foot-2, jacking up a bunch of perimeter shots, most of them errant. That helped Wahlert (4-3, 4-0) go ahead 34-15 at the break.

Kennedy took 26 first-half shots, 14 of them from distance. Just two went in.

Desperate for a spark, the Cougars went into a half-court trap defensively that helped get them back into the game and actually go ahead, 44-42, on an Alex Hayden 3-pointer late in the third. But Jake May had five consecutive points to put his club up 47-44 by quarter's end, and the teams see-sawed their way through the fourth.

May (brother of Iowa's Eric May) hit a lane runner with 15 seconds left for the winning points. Heitland missed an ensuing one-and-one with 7.9 seconds left, as did May, to set up the final sequence.

McCarron had 20 points (all in the first half) and May 19 (15 in the second half) for Wahlert. Heitland's 15 led Kennedy. Six-foot-7 center Elliott Christians added 13 points and eight rebounds.

“We knew they were going to make their comeback,” May said. “They're a good team, they're going to play hard the whole game. We knew that if we kept in it, slowed down our offense and got good looks, we could pull it off.”

Both teams played without a pair of starters, with Wahlert's injured and Kennedy's still suspended until next week. Kennedy hosts Cedar Rapids Washington in a boy-girl double-header Friday night.

Wahlert is tied atop the Mississippi Division standings with Dubuque Senior, which handed Cedar Rapids Jefferson its first loss Tuesday night.

"They made a great run. You knew they would, they're too good a team not to," said Wahlert Coach Tom English. "But we were able to stand at the end and get a couple of big stops when we needed to ... I was real proud of them down the stretch."

Here is the game boxscore and videos of May's winning shot and Heitland's final shot:

DUBUQUE WAHLERT (52): Jake May 6-14 5-7 19, Chad Heidesch 2-2 3-3 7, Brady Williams 1-4 0-0 3, Riley McCarron 8-13 0-2 20, Sam Koenig 1-5 0-0 3, Josh Tranel 0-2 0-2 0, John Burgmeier 0-0 0-0 0, Connor Krueger 0-0 0-0 0, Jared Walker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-40 8-14 52.

C.R. KENNEDY (51): Elliott Christians 4-7 5-6 13, Josh Jahlas 1-4 2-2 4, Cody Bell 3-6 0-0 7, Alex Hayden 2-12 0-0 6, Trevor Heitland 6-11 0-3 15, Ben Struss 1-4 0-0 2, A.J. Carter 0-2 0-0 0, Patrick Martin 2-6 0-0 4. Totals 19-52 7-11 51.

Halftime - Wahlert 34, Kennedy 19. 3-point goals - Wahlert 8-19 (May 2-5, Williams 1-4, McCarron 4-8, Koenig 1-2), Kennedy 6-24 (Bell 1-4, Hayden 2-11, Heitland 3-5, Carter 0-2, Martin 0-2). Rebounds - Wahlert 30 (May 12), Kennedy 27 (Christians 8). Total fouls - Wahlert 12, Kennedy 13. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Wahlert 16, Kennedy 10.