Xavier Saints march on to Class 3A state basketball championship game

DES MOINES — You remember that six-game losing streak to end the regular season? Nah.

The Cedar Rapids Xavier Saints don't, either.

They've won five in a row at exactly the best time. That includes disposing of Pella, 70-65, in the Class 3A state tournament semifinals Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

This group is going where no other Xavier team has gone, to the state championship game. It's an all-Mississippi Valley Conference final between parochial rivals Xavier (18-8) and Dubuque Wahlert (21-5), which seeks a 3A title three-peat.

The Golden Eagles beat the Saints by 12 to conclude the regular season. You remember that, right?

Nah.

'I told you it wouldn't matter,' Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann said. 'If you have success in the tournament, it kind of erases those things. Those were great learning experiences for us.'

'That was probably the best thing that ever happened to us,' said Xavier's Ryan Stulken. 'It kind of humbled us. We went, like, 13-2, then we hit that streak ... That just really helped us out, helped us get here.'

To be fair, Xavier had a couple of injuries that contributed to its late slide. Guards Mitchell Burger and Matt Mims had ankle injuries that made them miss games.

For most of this one, the Saints resembled the club that was 13-2, as Stulken pointed out. They essentially won here via absolutely deadly 3-point shooting, particularly from sophomore wing Jackson Joens.

He had six of them, four in a special 16-point third quarter that gave Xavier a 51-43 lead headed to the fourth. He finished with a career-high 22 points.

'My teammates just kept passing me the ball,' he said. 'I just kept shooting. They kept telling me to shoot. I had confidence to shoot, so I just kept doing it.'

'You should see him in practice,' Stulken said. 'The kid never misses.'

Pella (23-2) put on one final desperation push, using full-court pressure to create turnovers (Xavier had 19 of them) that suddenly moved it within 64-61 with under three minutes to go. Foul trouble on Mims and center Max Techau, and an injury to guard Nolan Butkowski, contributed to the Dutch rally.

But a game-tying 3-point attempt by Pella's Nick Finney missed at the 2:22 mark, Techau scored on an offensive putback a short time later, the Saints got a couple more defensive stops, and that was that.

'You just knew they were going to make a run,' Luehrsmann said. 'They're too good not to have made a run. With our guys being in foul trouble and us not being the deepest team in the world, you knew we might have a tough stretch there. I'm just happy we were able to answer the call and keep our composure and make plays during winning time.'

Techau added 14 points and Burger and Stulken 11 each. Will Warner had 20 points and Ryan Van Wyk 19 for Pella.

'We know Wahlert is a great team,' Techau said. 'They're two-time defending champions. So we're going to have to come out and play defense like we have the last two games. We look forward to it. Should be a great matchup. You always want to play the best team.'

Xavier put together a solid run of 14-6 in the second quarter to snatch a 28-21 halftime lead. Five different players scored in that run.

It was a peculiar half in that it seemed the Saints were outplayed a lot of the way. Pella appeared quicker to many loose balls, with evidence of that being the Dutch's 11 offensive rebounds.

But Pella could not shoot it ... that's from the field or the free-throw line. The Dutch were at 29 percent field-goal wise, including 1 of 10 from 3-point range.

From the free-throw line, they were an abominable 2 for 9.

'Our zone offense wasn't very good tonight,' said Pella Coach Mark Core. 'Let me back up. I thought our zone offense was fine. We just didn't make shots.'

Meanwhile, Xavier kept chugging along offensively. It made four of its first five shots to establish an early lead, getting a corner trey from Mitch Burger off an inbounds play with .6 seconds left in the first to take a 14-12 edge.

Like in Xavier's quarterfinal victory, Burger (the team's leading scorer) did not start, though he played 13 minutes. He returned to the team after missing the district and substate finals via 'coach's decision.'

In fact, Burger isn't even in Xavier's state tournament program team photo. Perhaps he'll be in the team's championship photo.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com