Cedar Falls makes defensive plays late to drop Linn-Mar boys’ basketball team to 0-2

MARION - Two games into this season for the Linn-Mar boys’ basketball team, and two games it could have won.

Unfortunately it also was two games it didn’t win.

But these Lions probably should look at the glass as being half full and not half empty right now. With a couple of exceptions, this is a whole new group from the one that made it to the state tournament semifinals in Class 4A last season

It’s going to take some time for everything to come together. But when it does, you might just have to look out.

“We just try to stay together as a team,” Linn-Mar junior shooter deluxe Karson Rains said Monday night, after the Lions suffered a tough 69-65 loss to a very good Cedar Falls team. “Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Just kind of keep pushing.”

“We know we’re a top team in the state,” said senior post player Tyler Hilton. “We know we have the talent to be there. But we’ve just got to figure it out. I think we’ve figured it out defensively. But if we can figure it out offensively, then I think we’re up there at the top.”

Linn-Mar (0-2) trailed most of this game, a couple of times by double-digit points. But it just kept hanging around, scratching and clawing.

Cedar Falls (2-0) squeezed its lead to 61-53 with 5:03 left when forward Will Gerdes (a Northern Iowa commit) hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Linn-Mar called timeout to regroup, and did just that, as Hilton hit a 3-pointer and a little bit later Rains leaked out after a Lions steal and made a layup to tie it at 65 with 2:18 left.

And an-one three-point play by Gerdes, who was working the low left block, put CF ahead 66-63, but Hilton scored on an inbounds pass to make it a one-point game, and Linn-Mar forced a Cedar Falls turnover with under a minute to go.

But Hilton tried to go dribble-drive from the top of the arc, and Cedar Falls’ Jaydon Kimbrough tipped the ball away from him leading to teammate Leyton Wolf’s three-point play with 22.9 seconds left.

Linn-Mar turned the basketball over again on its ensuing possession, and that was that.

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“Our defense was in ‘33,’ which is where our bottom guy will come trap on the bottom side at the moment,” said Kimbrough. “I knew I had to be there at the exact moment ... so as soon as he got the ball, he was going to go up with it because he’s their best player. I got a hand on it, we got it. That’s how it ended up.

“I was yelling to Leydon to pull the ball out there, but it ended up working out.”

Kimbrough led Cedar Falls with 20 points, with the 6-foot-9 Gerdes adding 16 points, 11 in the fourth quarter. Wolf, who’s 6-8, had 14 points.

Rains had 23 points, including five treys, to lead Linn-Mar. The 6-7 Hilton had 21 points.

He is the only returning starter for Linn-Mar, which lost its season opener last week to Bettendorf by 10 points. It led part of the game.

“From the start, we knew that they were going to double me, get the ball out of my hands,” Hilton said. “Fortunately we had some guys step up, hit some 3s. At the end of the day, I feel like I could have gotten the ball a little more into the paint. Maybe that would have ended in a different result. But I’m so proud of the way we played. We put up a good fight.”

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AT LINN-MAR

CEDAR FALLS (69): Leyton Wolf 6-10 2-5 14, Will Gerdes 6-11 1-1 16, Jaydon Kimbrough 7-16 4-5 20, Carsen Gary 2-5 2-2 8, Parker Berns 3-7 0-0 7, Mason Woltz 1-2 0-0 2, Ayden Moersfelder 0-0 0-0 0, Lincoln Walsworth 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 26-53 9-13 69.

LINN-MAR (65): Blake Ritze 4-8 0-0 8, Tyler Hilton 8-15 4-5 21, Max Robertson 0-2 2-2 2, Garrett Bauermeister 4-6 0-0 9, Karson Rains 8-13 2-2 23, Nolan Runge 0-0 0-0 0, Dexter Brunscheen 0-1 2-2 2. Totals 24-45 10-11 65.

Haltime - Cedar Falls 35, Linn-Mar 32. 3-point goals - Cedar Falls 8-19 (Wolf 0-1, Gerdes 3-4, Kimbrough 2-8, Gary 2-3, Berns 1-2, Woltz 0-1), Linn-Mar 7-16 (Hilton 1-3, Bauermeister 1-2, Rains 5-10, Brunscheen 0-1). Rebounds - Cedar Falls 27 (Gerdes 8), Linn-Mar 21 (Hilton 9). Total fouls - Cedar Falls 13, Linn-Mar 14. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Cedar Falls 14, Linn-Mar 16.

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