It’s the Kenzie and Colby show, as Cedar Rapids Kennedy wins its Class 4A state basketball quarterfinal

DES MOINES — You don’t get a lot of demonstrativeness from Kenzie Reed on the court.

Even when he was putting on a shooting show in the third quarter, the most emotion you saw from the Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior was a subtle little clenching of his fists and a quiet, almost internal “Let’s go.”

That was it.

“A humble kid,” Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen said.

And a really good basketball player, a pass-first type of point guard who scored instead of distributed Wednesday morning in Kennedy’s 61-55 win over Waukee Northwest in a Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena.

Reed had 26 points, hitting five 3-pointers, three in the third quarter as the Cougars won what was considered by most to be a 50-50 game between this field’s fourth and fifth seeds. Kennedy was the No. 4.

“Our whole team, anybody can have a night like that. There’s, like, six of us that could. It just happened to be me in this game,” Reed said. “I just saw one go in, then the next one and the next one. So I was going to keep shooting it.”

» Photos: Cedar Rapids Kennedy vs. Waukee Northwest in Class 4A state quarterfinals

Him and backcourt classmate Colby Dolphin, to be specific. Dolphin had 22 points, making all 10 of his free throws as Kennedy (21-3) built as much as a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter on Northwest (20-5).

Reed and Dolphin had 31 of Kennedy’s 35 points in the second half. The Cougars were 18 of 21 from the line and 18 of 32 from the field.

That’s getting it done.

“I just think that Kenzie and I have a great continuity between us,” Dolphin said. “He creates, and then I normally find a way to move off of him, try to find a way to get him an assist or something.”

“They play so well off of each other,” McKowen said.

Kennedy’s defenders played so well off of each other, too, which was the other huge key in this game. Northwest’s Pryce Sandfort, younger brother of Iowa Hawkeyes freshman Payton Sandfort, came into this tournament averaging 27.2 points per game but was limited to 14 on just nine field-goal attempts.

Kennedy threw a lot of defenders at him and a lot of different defenses.

“Early in the game, we tried to run a set to get him tired. Run him back and forth,” Dolphin said. “That makes it difficult to score on the offensive end if you’re tired. Then we just kept changing up the defense. Doubling him, attacking him. He wasn’t seeing the same look every time.”

“We just tried to take him out of rhythm,” McKowen said. “He is such a good player, and he scores from everywhere.The biggest thing was we didn’t want him to score at the free-throw line. He’s shooting over 80 percent from the free-throw line, and he gets there about 8.3 times a game. That’s a lot of points.”

So Kennedy gets another crack at top-seeded and top-ranked Ames (21-3) in Thursday afternoon’s 5:30 semifinals. The teams played at Kennedy way back in the second game of the regular season, with the Little Cyclones winning, 62-46.

Ames features Iowa State signee Tamin Lipsey, quite possibly Iowa’s Mr. Basketball. Two of the Little Cyclones’ losses came when he was out with an ankle injury, the other to a school from Missouri.

“We know we’re right there with them,” Dolphin said. “We feel like we can definitely hang with them. They’re a great defensive team. We just have to take what they give us, try to find a way to get good offensive shots.”

AT DES MOINES

WAUKEE NORTHWEST (55): Cade Kelderman 5-9 1-1 12, Henry Manning 4-8 0-2 10, Pryce Sandfort 3-9 7-8 14, Carter Van Horn 2-4 0-0 4, Grant Tigges 7-12 0-0 15, Sam Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Cade Rounds 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 8-11 55.

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (61): Carson Blietz 1-3 0-0 2, Jackson Bowman 2-2 1-3 5, Craig Mills 1-2 0-0 2, Kenzie Reed 8-12 5-6 26, Colby Dolphin 5-11 10-10 22, Carter Newhouse 0-1 0-0 0, Gannon Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Cyrus Courtney 1-1 2-2 4. Totals 18-32 18-21 61.

Halftime - Northwest 26, Kennedy 26. 3-point goals - Northwest 5-16 (Kelderman 1-2, Manning 2-5, Sandfort 1-5, Tigges 1-2, Johnson 0-2), Kennedy 7-14 (Reed 5-7, Blietz 0-1, Dolphin 2-5, Newhouse 0-1). Rebounds - Northwest 22 (Tigges 8), Kennedy 16 (Bowman 4). Assists - Northwest 8 (Kelderman 3), Kennedy 8 (Newhouse, Courtney 2). Turnovers - Northwest 12, Kennedy 12.

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