This Washington basketball team is way young and way talented

CEDAR RAPIDS - So young. So dang young.

Three freshmen started Monday night for Cedar Rapids Washington’s boys’ basketball team in their season opener against Mount Pleasant. As did a sophomore.

Trei Crowder is the old man of the starting lineup for the Warriors, and he’s still just a junior. There was a fourth freshman who saw playing time off the bench in Wash’s 59-55 home win, too, and two more freshmen on the team who didn’t see playing time here.

“There is no secret as to who is on our roster, what it looks like,” said Washington first-year head coach Nate Garner. “We just want to keep getting these guys better and not have them focus on their youth because the good teams are going to go at them. We know that.

“We just need to get better each day. That’s our motto, to get better each day and be prepared.”

Freshman wing Hal Jackson had a game-high 23 points as Wash saw a double-digit first-half lead completely go away, actually having to rally from a point down after three quarters to win. The 6-foot-5 Jackson is a young freshman, considering he didn’t turn 14 years old until August.

But, man, does this kid appear to have big-time upside. He can drive and dunk, can shoot the 3-pointer, can rebound, can pass it.

But, again, he’s a freshman, youth that was on display when he went in for baseline dunk in the fourth quarter that didn’t go down, hanging onto the rim for a technical foul to boot. He had a breakaway in the closing seconds, looking to put the game away with some sort of jam but got in too big of a hurry and lost control of the basketball instead.

Still, 23 numbers in your first varsity game is something. And this kid is something.

“It was a good experience. The crowd was good. I’m glad I could be here,” Jackson said. “We just work every day. All of our young freshmen have been playing together since we were really young, so we have a lot of chemistry. A lot of people are going to doubt us, but we’re going to show them who we are.”

“He’s a very special athlete for his age,” Garner said. “He’s 14 years old and just turned it in August. So he’s very special for a young man, for sure. Big upside. He’s got work to do.”

Little shooting guard Traeshon Fields, who actually is younger than Jackson, is another ninth-grader who did just fine Monday night, scoring 16 points, including making a pair of 3-pointers. Beefy 6-5 freshman Brian Robertson was solid combatting 6-7 Mount Pleasant center Noah Lange down low in the paint, adding six points.

Will Rahe had eight points, hitting some clutch free throws down the stretch as Washington successfully nursed a small lead. Mount Pleasant got four 3s and 19 points from Ian Reid.

The Panthers’ ability to shoot it from range kept them in it, but their free-throw shooting, especially late, kept them from catching Washington. MP was 11 of 22 from the stripe.

“I thought it was good,” Jackson said. “I think we could have done better at taking care of the ball, think we had 12 turnovers. I also think we could move the ball a little bit better, rebound, box out because they were kind of killing us on the boards.”

Yet these Diaper Dandies were just that here. Washington hosts Des Moines East on Tuesday night.

Garner has no delusions, knows his youthful club will have nights where it gets it handed to it this season. But if this group keeps improving and stays together, the next couple of years could be potentially special.

“I’m just happy that our guys kept the energy up,” Garner said. “We were able to play some man-to-man defense tough for four quarters, the majority of the game. Our preseason conditioning has worked in our favor, and I’m happy about that. It’s just a testament to all of the young guys, all of our guys of just being there for each other.”

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS WASHINGTON

MOUNT PLEASANT (55): Ian Reid 5-9 5-8 19, Aiden Humble 2-6 0-2 6, Noah Lange 5-8 4-9 14, Ryan Helling 2-5 2-3 8, Brody Clark 2-9 0-0 5, Kellen Kohorst 0-0 0-0 0, Keegan Heaton 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Veloz 1-2 0-0 3, Shawden Turner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-39 11-22 55.

C.R. WASHINGTON (59): Halbert Jackson 9-13 1-2 23, Brian Robertson 2-3 2-4 6, Will Rahe 2-6 3-4 8, Trei Crowder 1-2 0-0 3, Traeshon Fields 5-16 3-4 15, Preston Haefner 0-2 0-0 0, John Moore 1-1 0-0 2, Javion Seals 1-2 0-0 2, Damiyon Ayers 0-3 0-0 0, Chuck Crawley 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 9-14 59.

Halftime - Washington 34, Mount Pleasant 28. 3-point goals - Mount Pleasant 10-23 (Reid 4-7, Humble 2-4, Lange 0-1, Helling 2-4, Clark 1-5, Veloz 1-2), Washington 8-28 (Jackson 4-5, Rahe 1-4, Crowder 1-1, Fields 2-12, Haefner 0-2, Ayers 0-3, Crawley 0-1). Rebounds - Mount Pleasant 25 (Lange 9). Washington 27 (Jackson 7). Total fouls - Mount Pleasant 12, Washington 22. Fouled out - Robertson. Turnovers - Mount Pleasant 17, Washington 12.

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