A good early season non-conference win for Linn-Mar

MARION - A quality early season non-conference victory over one of the suburban Des Moines superpowers. That’s what the Linn-Mar boys’ basketball team picked up Saturday afternoon.

A fourth-quarter spurt allowed the Lions to create enough separation to eventually go on and post a 68-60 victory over Waukee.

Yes, Waukee is 0-2 after losing this one and a Friday night game to Johnston by 20 points. But the Warriors will be a good club by the time it’s all said and done, a factor in the Central Iowa Metro League, which has dominated Class 4A hoops in recent seasons.

Well done, boys.

“It was really good to play a Des Moines team like this,” said Linn-Mar’s Davis Kern, who hit his first eight shots in a 27-point game. “Someone we could see down the road. Because, I mean, our goal is to win state. To get there, we’re going to play teams like that.”

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“I was a little disappointed,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson. “I just thought they played harder than us the first half. Not that we played poorly, but they played harder. They got loose balls, they got some offensive rebounds. Fortunately in the second half we did a little bit better job. I thought our effort was better. Yeah, that’s a good win. That’s a team that is going to win some games.”

So is Linn-Mar.

The Lions (2-0) have size, shooters, a Division I signee in the 6-foot-9 Kern (South Dakota State) and a D-II signee in wing Payson Nietert (Wayne State of Nebraska). They added senior guard Trey Wright to the mix, too, who transferred in after starting at Iowa City High.

Mason Matson complemented Kern here with 17 points. He started all last season at guard for a team that won 16 games.

“I think we knew that a couple of years ago we were kind of building up to this with this group,” Robertson said. “I told them there should never be a night where you walk in and not think you’re going to win. I think we’ve proven that, and they have enough confidence that they can beat anybody on the schedule. But we’re not good enough to just show up. We’ve maybe had some teams in the past that could show up and they were going to win. This team is going to have to earn it. But there is a lot of potential there, too.”

The game was tight throughout, with Waukee taking a 47-45 lead on a pair of Jai White free throws with 6:19 left. That’s when Linn-Mar went on a telltale 10-0 run that turned a two-point deficit into an eight-point lead.

Max Robertson, the coach’s son, hit a huge 3-pointer in the flurry. Forward Tyler Hilton had an and-one three-point play on a steal and layup.

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“They were hitting shots, and we were missing,” Kern said. “But, honestly, it was guys like Tyler Hilton and Max Robertson. They stepped up huge, a couple of guys who maybe haven’t been talked about as much ... They hit big shots.”

“I think that was the point where we finally figured out the zone. You wouldn’t think a zone would bother us,” Coach Robertson said. “And I wouldn’t say it bothered us, we just didn’t attack it. We just kind of through it around the perimeter and settled for some 3s. I think once we were able to get it to the high post, we hit a couple of shots in that stretch and then got them out of the zone, I thought then they had a tough time guarding down the stretch.”

Linn-Mar has another tough challenge coming up Monday in Cedar Falls.

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AT LINN-MAR

WAUKEE (60): Pete Craig 3-9 2-2 10, Evan Jacobson 5-15 4-4 16, Maverick Inman 4-13 1-2 12, Max Roach 4-11 0-0 10, Jai White 2-14 5-6 9, Jackson Donahue 0-0 0-0 0, Carter Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Kayne Vandis 1-2 0-0 3, Chance Burkett 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-64 12-14 60.

LINN-MAR (68): Payson Nietert 0-4 2-4 2, Tyler Hilton 3-8 2-5 8, Davis Kern 10-15 4-4 27, Mason Matson 5-10 4-5 17, Trey Wright 2-5 5-6 9, Max Robertson 2-2 0-0 5, Karson Rains 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-46 17-24 68.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 33, Waukee 33. 3-point goals - Waukee 10-31 (Craig 2-8, Jacobson 2-7, Inman 3-8, Roach 2-2, White 0-3, Donahue 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Vandis 1-1), Linn-Mar 7-22 (Nietert 0-3, Kern 3-7, Matson 3-6, Wright 0-2, Robertson 1-1, Rains 0-2). Rebounds - Waukee 35 (Craig, Jacobson, Roach, White 6), Linn-Mar 38 (Wright 9, Kern 8). Total fouls - Waukee 23, Linn-Mar 11. Fouled out - Craig, White. Turnovers - Waukee 9, Linn-Mar 13.

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