Cedar Rapids Xavier boys’ basketball team goes to break unbeaten and ranked No. 1

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Iowa High School Athletic Association did them a solid. Or maybe did them no favor.

Guess it’s all how Cedar Rapids Xavier’s boys’ basketball team handles this thing.

The IHSAA came out with its first-ever sponsored rankings Monday, and wouldn’t you know but the Saints are No. 1 in Class 3A. How you dealing it it, boys?

“It’s a good feeling, but I want to stay humble,” said Xavier’s Joe Bean, after his game-high 18 points helped his club to a 55-43 win Tuesday night at Cedar Rapids Washington. “There are teams out there that are going to be tough to play against.”

This Xavier team wasn’t expected to be terribly much, especially at the start of the season, since so many hoopers were part of the school’s state championship football team. Those guys got a later start to basketball season.

But the Saints did have basketball-centric guys like Bean and Aidan Yamilkoski and 6-foot-8 junior Tyler Netolicky. Josef Lemker played football, but he also did a lot of summer work on his hoops game.

It’s been a great mix and a great start.

“This group is a bunch of winners,” said Xavier Coach Mike Freeman. “They love basketball, but we’ve got guys who play multiple sports, and they know how to win. We have basketball guys, we have football guys coming in. Multi-sport guys. I’m proud of them. We just have winners. They know how to win.

“It makes a real big difference.”

Xavier is 7-0 after leading this cross-town rivalvy game from start to finish. Neither team shot it especially well, with Xavier posting a 24-18 halftime lead.

That lead grew by as many as 15 points in the second half. Washington (2-4) could just never get its deficit under the eight, nine or 10-point mark.

“Really just went out and tried to attack,” said Bean, whose point total included a trio of treys. “I don’t really know, man. We were just passing the ball, had good team work. We were shooting a bunch of shots early, but only a couple of them were going in. We went in at halftime, and the intensity stepped up in the second half.”

Yamilkoski has been Xavier’s leading scorer, but he went without a point in the first half. He rebounded with 12 second-half points.

Washington really struggled from the field, connecting on just 1 of 12 3-point tries. The Warriors also turned it over 18 times, many of those 18 just careless passes out of bounds.

There just seemed to be little offensive rhythm. Traijan Sain led Wash with 14 points, hitting 6 of 9 shots from the field.

The long and tall senior is a matchup problem for opponents and probably could stand to take a lot more than 9 shots a game.

“We’ve got to look forward to our next game,” Freeman said. “Rankings don’t mean anything, right? It’s just about playing your next game. How do we keep getting better? That stuff is for everyone else who isn’t in the locker room. For us, it’s about how are we going to get better, how are we going to keep coaching these guys? The opponent up, we’re going to be ready to go.”

That opponent will be Iowa City Liberty on Jan. 3.

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS WASHINGTON

C.R. XAVIER (55): Aidan Yamilkoski 4-13 2-2 12, Tyler Netolicky 4-5 0-0 8, Joe Bean 6-12 3-3 18, Josef Lemker 3-8 0-0 8, Thomas Sundell 2-4 0-0 4, Aidan McDermott 2-4 0-0 5, Michael Cunningham 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-46 5-5 55.

C.R. WASHINGTON (43): Noah Johnson 2-5 1-2 5, J.J. Willis 0-2 0-0 0, Traijan Sain 6-9 2-2 14, Jaden Harris 2-5 0-0 4, Jesse Sellers 3-10 5-5 11, Jaxton Schroeder 1-1 0-0 2, Bryce Brim 1-1 0-0 2, Braden Becker 1-2 0-0 2, Kwaevon China 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 17-37 8-9 43.

Halftime - Xavier 24, Washington 18. 3-point goals - Xavier 8-22 (Yamilkoski 2-7, Bean 3-5, Lemker 2-6, Sundell 0-2, McDermott 1-2), Washington 1-12 (Johnson 0-1, Willis 0-1, Sain 0-2, Harris 0-1, Sellers 0-4, China 1-2). Rebounds - Xavier 24 (Netolicky, Sundell 6), Washington 23 (Sain 6). Total fouls - Xavier 13, Washington 10. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Xavier 13, Washington 18.

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