Class 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy overpowers No. 2 Iowa City West, 71-57

IOWA CITY — You could call this many things.

The Cyrus Courtney Game. That’d be a great moniker.

The game that kept the regular-season streak intact. Solid.

The game that showed the gap between Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s boys’ basketball team and everyone else in the state in Class 4A might be somewhat pronounced. Yup.

The game where the Cougars were really poor at one thing: free-throw shooting. Sure, if you wanna go trolling,

Class 4A’s top-ranked team shot just 9 of 18 from the line Tuesday night. But that was about the only thing Kennedy didn’t do well in a convincing 71-57 win at No. 2 Iowa City West.

“I told our guys that we put together the toughest schedule we could in the non-conference,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “Iowa City West has been playing great ... What I love about our team is that we have such emotional maturity. They were the same, whether we were on a run or they were on a run. That’s what’s wins big-time games.”

Kennedy (18-0, 12-0 in the Valley Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference) shot 70 percent from the field in a 40-point first half that gave it a 12-point halftime lead. That lead grew to as many as 18 in the second half before West (15-2, 9-1) cut it to as few as seven late in the third quarter.

But that was as close as the Trojans could get. Too much Kennedy, too much Courtney.

The senior forward finished with a career-high 26 points, making 11 of 15 shots from the field. That included 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point land.

“It just came to me,” Courtney said. “I didn’t go into this game like I was going to drop, what, 26 points. Our team was struggling, and we just needed to have someone step up. Today was my day, I stepped up. And then we got us the win.”

“I feel like Cyrus got hot right away,” said Kennedy guard Trey McKowen, who added 16 points for the Cougars. “So then we definitely just kept feeding him, and we just trusted him the whole way. Our ball movement was really good, we didn’t get stagnant, which was one of our key points in the game. Because they deny.”

Rebounds were another huge thing in this game. Kennedy had 24 of them, West 12.

The Trojans got virtually no second-chance opportunities offensively. Had it not been for the heroics of star junior forward Jack McCaffery, this game wouldn’t have been as “close” as it was.

The youngest son of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery got hot in the second half, which allowed West to get within striking distance. He finished with 22 points, making 8 of 12 shots from the field, including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc.

But Kennedy did a better job defensively on him in the fourth quarter. The Cougars have beaten half of the current top 10 in 4A, as ranked by the Iowa High School Athletic Association: West, Cedar Falls, Dubuque Senior, Waukee and West Des Moines Valley.

“The game plan is pretty simple,” said West Coach Steve Bergman. “You can’t have live-ball turnovers. We had 20, and I don’t how many were live ball, and I know a lot of them were. And we didn’t run anything (offensively). Their pressure ... if you think about the three worst halves of basketball we’ve had this season, it’s the two today and the second half against Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls got us sped up, and we didn’t run anything. We just don’t have anyone on the court who can take over and make sure we run stuff.”

Kennedy has won 38 consecutive regular-season games.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy 71, Iowa City West 57

AT IOWA CITY WEST

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (71): Trevan Krumrei 3-5 0-0 7, Micah Schlaak 4-5 3-6 12, Cyrus Courtney 11-15 1-4 26, Joe Bean 3-7 2-4 10, Trey McKowen 6-8 3-4 16, Griffin Gerdes 0-2 0-0 0, Landon Deiters 0-0 0-0 0, Pierce McCrary 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-42 9-18 71.

IOWA CITY WEST (57): Jack McCaffery 8-12 1-1 22, Kareem Earl 3-5 0-3 7, Julian Manson 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Koch 4-9 0-0 12, Canaan Barnes 2-4 0-0 4, TaeVeon Stevens 3-7 2-2 10, Mason Goering 1-1 0-0 2, Jack Wallace 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-40 3-6 59.

Halftime - Kennedy 40, West 28. 3-point goals - Kennedy 8-16 (Krumrei 1-2, Schlaak 1-2, Courtney 3-4, Bean 2-5, McKowen 1-2, Gerdes 0-1), West 12-22 (McCaffery 5-8), Earl 1-2, Koch 4-7, Stevens 2-5). Rebounds - Kennedy 24 (McKowen 8, Courtney 7), West 12 (McCaffery 5). Total fouls - Kennedy 11, West 17. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Kennedy 13, West 17.

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