Linn-Mar wins 11th straight, wins at Dubuque Senior, 61-56

DUBUQUE – That loss back in early January at the Crossover Challenge. You’ve almost forgotten about it at this point.

It has been nothing but wins since for the red-hot Linn-Mar boys’ basketball team. An uneven 11 of ‘em in a row now.

The Class 4A third-ranked Lions handled No. 5 Dubuque Senior, 61-56, Friday night at Nora Gym to all but clinch the Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division championship. The Lions (17-2 overall) are a perfect 12-0 in conference play with a two-game lead on Senior (15-3 overall) with two conference games remaining for each.

Linn-Mar will be heavily favored in its two, against Dubuque Hempstead and Cedar Rapids Jefferson. Never say it’s over, but it’s all but over.

“I mean, yeah, this is awesome. It’s a goal you want to reach,” said Linn-Mar’s Payson Nietert. “But we’ve got higher things we want to reach after this. It’s every step at a time, but we still want to get to bigger things.”

About the Lions’ previous loss. It came to a decent Ankeny team at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids and without starting point guard Trey Wright, who was out sick.

That was motivation for this group. Among Linn-Mar’s 11 straight Ws are four against teams in the 4A top 10 (Senior, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Prairie and No. 1 Cedar Falls) and another against a 3A-ranked team (Cedar Rapids Xavier).

“Of course, I remember that Ankeny loss,” said Nietert, who had 14 points, 12 in the second half. “I’m not forgetting it. Since that game, we’ve never wanted to taste it again. We find ways to get better every day in practice, in games and stuff like that.”

“Honestly I think our two losses were really big learning experiences,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson. “You go way back to getting pounded by Cedar Falls up there (in early December by 27 points). I remember telling the guys it might be the best thing to happen to us, if we handle things the right way. For the most part, we have. We weren’t great against Ankeny. I mean, Ankeny is good, we just didn’t play well. We talked about how you can’t take things for granted, that you’ve got to show up every day. Especially the way the league is this year, you’ve got to be ready every night. This is a big road game. It’s a tough place to win.”

Linn-Mar led most of the way, by as many as 12 points in the second half. But Senior never went away, riding hot second-half shooting (hitting 14 of 16 at one point) to hang around.

The Rams even had a chance to tie in the closing seconds. A five-second violation on the inbounds pass for Linn-Mar gave Senior the ball underneath the Lions basket with 15.7 seconds left, and guard Cooper Porter got an open look at a corner trey.

The shot didn’t fall, Mason Matson rebounds for Linn-Mar, was fouled and made two free throws with 10.4 seconds left to finally put it away.

Davis Kern had 21 points for Linn-Mar. Drake Medinger’s 17 points led Senior, with Tevin Schultz adding 11. He came in averaging 20 a game, so the Lions did a nice job of defending him on the interior.

“I don’t know the last time we won here,” Robertson said.

It was 2022.

“Then especially, too, with the division championship on the line, this was big,” he said. “Really happy for our guys. We had a lead, then they made runs at us. We just kept answering, kept answering. It probably got a little closer than it should have at the end. But to get out of here with a win is certainly a good feeling.”

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AT DUBUQUE

LINN-MAR (61): Payson Nietert 5-10 1-2 14, Tyler Hilton 2-6 1-4 5, Davis Kern 8-9 4-4 21, Mason Matson 2-5 3-3 8, Trey Wright 3-5 2-2 8, Max Robertson 2-3 1-2 5, Karson Rains 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 22-41 12-17 61.

DUBUQUE SENIOR (56): Jalen Johnson 4-7 0-0 8, Drake Medinger 6-10 3-4 17, Tevin Schultz 5-13 0-0 11, Cooper Porter 2-8 0-0 6, Mahdi Al-Ahtabi 2-3 0-0 5, Mekyael Hall 2-3 0-2 4, Drew Francois 1-4 0-0 2, Michael Powers 0-0 0-0 0, Barrett Reed 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 23-51 3-6 56.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 26, Dubuque Senior 21. 3-point goals - Linn-Mar 5-19 (Nietert 3-8, Hilton 0-1, Kern 1-1, Matson 1-2, Wright 0-2, Robertson 0-1, Rains 0-3), Dubuque Senior 7-18 (Medinger 2-5, Schultz 1-3, Porter 2-5, Ah-Ahtabi 1-2, Reed 1-2). Rebounds - Linn-Mar 24 (Hilton 8), Dubuque Senior 24 (Johnson, Schultz 6). Total fouls - Linn-Mar 8, Dubuque Senior 15. Technical fouls - Nietert, Al-Ahtabi. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Linn-Mar 7, Dubuque Senior 7.

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