Better late than never for C.R. Xavier boys’ basketball team

CEDAR RAPIDS - What do you do when you don’t play a game until later in the first week of the basketball season? You go watch other games.

That’s what Zander Murray did. The Cedar Rapids Xavier junior guard went over to Marion the other night to watch the Wolves play Waverly-Shell Rock.

The Saints play WSR on Saturday afternoon. A good chance to scout the upcoming opponent.

“It’s like we were just waiting for our time,” said Murray, whose game-high 15 points helped Xavier beat Iowa City High, 62-49, Thursday night at Ron Thillen Gymnasium. “You see all the other teams out there playing already, and it was like we were ready to get out there. The extra practice time we had just prepared us better for tonight.”

A dogged man-to-man Xavier defense rushed City High offensively, created turnovers and run outs as the Saints built a 21-6 lead after the first quarter and a 57-27 edge after three quarters. While it took until Thursday for Xavier to get its season opener in, this was the third game in four nights for City High (1-2).

“We do the schedule by design,” Xavier Coach Mike Freeman said. “It’s because of football.”

Xavier’s football team routinely makes deep playoff runs, which forces kids who play both sports to get later starts to the basketball season. There’s no recovery time.

Unfortunately and uniquely, Xavier didn’t make it past the quarterfinal round of the football playoffs this year. Thus everyone was especially ready to get after it Thursday.

“Yeah, you want to play just to see what we have,” Freeman said. “I thought we started well, obviously got off to a big lead, but we lost our focus. I thought our first quarter and third-quarter defense was really good, our second and fourth wasn’t very good. We’ve got to mature, we’ve got to grow up a little bit. But that’s why you play games, right?”

Murray’s game has seemed to mature in his second season on the varsity. He was more of a 3-point guy only last season as a sophomore but has added offensive elements to his game, like penetrating for points and creating shots for others.

He was equally effective in both halves: scoring 8 points in the first and 7 in the second. And he missed four of his six free throws, which meant he could have done even more scoring damage.

Still, not a bad start.

“Last year I was just more of a shooter,” Murray said. “This year I have a bigger role, being a ball handler, too. That just gives me that much more confidence. I’m more comfortable, just having that experience from last year.”

“Obviously Zander is talented offensively. He has some really nice offensive skills,” Freeman said. “But I would tell you and he would tell you this, that none of us coaches have talked about his offense once. We’ve told him ‘You’ve got to become a rebounder and a defender.’ He’s got to take his game to another level. He is starting to do that in practice. He’s starting to talk. When he does that, he is going to be a really good player.”

A.J. Evans, the 6-foot-8 junior post player, was the other sophomore in Xavier’s starting lineup last season, and he added 11 points here. Christopher Watkins, a 6-5 junior forward, led City High with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Former longtime girls’ head coach Bill MacTaggart is in his first season directing the boys’ program.

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER

IOWA CITY HIGH (49): Christopher Watkins 5-9 2-4 13, Parker Sutherland 2-6 0-2 4, Davion Luckett 2-6 2-4 7, Dominic Salibi 0-5 0-0 0, Jack Lampe 2-9 0-0 4, Iyon Harris 2-5 0-1 4, Ja’Vion Robinson 3-8 2-2 9, Tyler Rindels 2-2 1-3 5, Bobby Bacon 2-2 1-3 5, Jack Rogers 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 19-51 7-16 49.

C.R. XAVIER (61): A.J. Evans 5-7 1-2 11, Kaleb Wilgenbusch 3-5 1-2 8, Lorenzo Pino 3-7 3-4 9, Aiden Miller 3-4 0-0 7, Zander Murray 6-11 2-6 15, Carter Hoffmann 4-5 0-0 8, Jack Downey 1-2 0-0 2, Lee Gamez 1-2 0-0 2, Sam Leuck 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Lofftswold 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Braksiek 0-0 0-0 0, Wayne Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Mac Driscoll 0-1 0-0 0, Brady O’Donnell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-44 7-14 61.

Halftime - Xavier 35, City High 21. 3-point goals - City High 4-23 (Watkins 1-3, Luckett 1-5, Salibi 0-1, Lampe 0-4, Harris 0-3, Robinson 1-5, Rogers 0-1, Xavier 3-12 (Wilgenbusch 1-1, Pino 0-1, Miller 1-2, Murray 1-5, Hoffmann 0-1, Downey 0-1, Gamez 1-1, Driscoll 0-1). Rebounds - City High 30 (Watkins 10, Miller, Murray 5). Total fouls - City High 12, Xavier 22. Fouled out - Evans. Turnovers - City High 16, Xavier 12.

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