Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s boys’ basketball season turns historic

CEDAR RAPIDS — This was a first, with another possibly on the way in a couple of days.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s top-ranked boys’ basketball team did what top-ranked basketball teams do Tuesday night, scoring the first 11 points en route to winning the Battle of 42nd Street, 70-43, at Xavier’s Ron Thillen Gynmasium.

Kennedy is No. 1 in Class 4A, Xavier fourth in 3A.

This was a drubbing, certainly not the “first” being referred to above. The Cougars are beating opponents by an average of 30 points a game.

What this victory did do, though, was give Kennedy a perfect finish in the Mississippi Valley Conference for the first time. That’d be a perfect 14-0.

Kennedy is 20-0 overall, with a finale scheduled (weather permitting) Thursday against Waterloo East. If the Cougars win, and they’ll be heavily favored to do so, they’ll finish with an unbeaten regular season for the first time in school history.

Not even Kennedy’s state championship teams of 1972 and 1984 can say they accomplished that. Linn-Mar in 2010-11 was the last Metro team to finish unbeaten in the regular season, with the Lions sweeping their way to the 4A state championship.

“I mean, those were expectations, like a goal for us coming in,” said Kennedy’s Kenzie Reed. “We kind of saw this at the beginning of the season. So it’s just nice to finally accomplish some of these goals. Hopefully we’ll get the next one on Thursday and keep going from there.”

You kind of wondered how Kennedy would respond after playing three games last week, including a big win Saturday at 4A No. 4 West Des Moines Valley. But there was no letdown, or even close to one.

The Cougars continually turned over Xavier early with their aggressive, helping defensive pressure, which led to the 11-0 lead. Xavier (14-6) stabilized things, yet still trailed at halftime, 39-22.

It was an 18-point game after three quarters.

“We kind of took a rest on Sunday, but practice yesterday, it was like we hadn’t skipped a practice or anything,” said Kennedy’s Colby Dolphin, who led his team with 18 points. “It was almost like we’d lost (Saturday). It was just an intense practice, everyone was competitive, just getting after it. That’s what you need to come out and win these games after getting a big win.”

“Obviously we’re going in thinking it was going to be a great game,” said Kennedy’s Carter Newhouse. “Not thinking we’re going to blow them out or anything. But we do go into every game expecting to win.”

Newhouse, an unsung player on this team, hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points. Reed added 10 points, sitting more than usual because he was feeling a bit under the weather.

Joe Bean had 12 points and Tyler Netolicky 11 for Xavier, which was hampered by an upper-body injury to leading scorer Aidan Yamilkoski. He was limited to three points on 1-of-7 shooting.

“That’s a good basketball team. Hopefully they go and do something that hasn’t been done in the Valley for (a while),” Xavier Coach Mike Freeman said of Kennedy. “We knew we were going to have our hands full. They forced us into doing a lot of things we didn’t want to do. All the credit to them.”

Xavier is a top seed in its 3A substate, with that play beginning next week.

“As I told the boys, it’s on to our next game,” Freeman said. “It’s Western Dubuque on Thursday, who is also in our substate. So we need to be ready to go.”

AT CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (70): Cyrus Courtney 4-6 0-1 9, Micah Schlaak 4-6 1-1 9, Carter Newhouse 4-7 0-0 12, Colby Dolphin 8-12 1-1 18, Kenzie Reed 4-6 0-0 10, Trey McKowen 1-4 1-2 3, Trevan Krumrei 2-4 0-0 5, Landon Deiters 0-1 0-0 0, Jace Scott 0-1 0-0 0, Griffin Gerdes 2-2 0-0 4, Reid Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Colton Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Reece Murray 0-0 0-0 0, Nolan Grawe 0-0 0-0 0, Micah Jauhiainen 0-0 0-0 0, Donovan Slick-Driscoll 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-49 3-5 70.

CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER (43): Josef Lemker 2-9 1-2 6, Aidan Yamilkoski 1-7 0-0 3, Joe Bean 4-13 2-2 12, Tyler Netolicky 5-9 1-2 11, Thomas Sundell 0-2 0-0 0, Aidan McDermott 2-4 0-0 4, Michael Cunningham 3-4 1-2 7, Kaleb Wilgenbusch 0-0 0-0 0, Preston Lang 0-0 0-0 0, Dominic D’Amico 0-1 0-0 0, Jace Borcherding 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Jordebrek 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-48 5-8 43.

Halftime - Kennedy 39, Xavier 22. 3-point goals - Kennedy 9-17 (Courtney 0-1, Newhouse 4-6, Dolphin 1-4, Reed 2-3, McKowen 0-1, Krumrei 1-1), Xavier 4-20 (Lemker 1-6, Yamilkoski 1-7, Bean 2-5, Sundell 0-1, D’Amico 0-1). Rebounds - Kennedy 24 (Schlaak 11), Xavier 28 (Netolicky 7). Total fouls - Kennedy 13, Xavier 12. Technical foul - Courtney. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Kennedy 11, Xavier 18.

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