The road is long for Cedar Valley Christian in first hoops season

TROY MILLS - This wasn't a home game for the Cedar Valley Christian Huskies, though it sure had to feel like one.

“That's been a little bit tougher than I thought it was going to be,” CVC Coach Jeff Pospisil said after his road warriors lost to North-Linn, 77-60, Thursday night. “I never really thought about it that much going into it. I just thought ‘Hey, we get to go somewhere, we're not traveling very far, we're playing in some nice gyms.' But I think it does take some wear and tear. And the crowd influence is a little more of a factor than I thought it was going to be.”

This is the first boys' basketball season as an official Iowa High School Athletic Association member for Cedar Valley Christian, the tiny parochial school tucked away on the southeast side of Cedar Rapids. Because they have had to try and piece together a schedule as a team without a conference, and because their gymnasium is so small, the Huskies are playing 19 of their 21 regular-season games on the road.

That includes the first 13. Last week, for instance, CVC played Friday night at Montezuma and Saturday night at Bellevue against Clayton Ridge.

That's west-to-east brutal. But the Huskies have been competitive (3-4), and at least road game No. 7 was in Linn County, the closest geographically they've had to a home game.

“It's not that bad because the gyms are a lot nicer than our gym,” said Cedar Valley Christian guard Jeremy Strutz. “The crowds definitely get into it. It's hard to keep your poise because of the pressure. Tough to keep our patience on offense and stuff. But it's been fun for the most part.”

Thursday night wasn't much fun, as a very good North-Linn team improved to 7-0 with a dominant victory. The Lynx gave CVC fits with three-quarter court defensive pressure, leading by as many as 30 points until Cedar Rapids Christian rallied against reserves.

Guard Hunter Pflughaupt nailed five 3-pointers in a 17-point night for North-Linn. Center Jake Oswald had 21 points and eight rebounds.

“If we had just a little more offense,” said North-Linn Coach Mike Hilmer. “Teams that don't know us well, sometimes we're (good offensively). But teams that do know us well, Hunter doesn't get to shoot it as much as he got to tonight, and that kind of thing. I don't know. I guess when I coach, I always see the weaknesses of the team. I'm sure everybody does that. We'll find out here in the next couple of games how good we are.”

CVC has some nice players, though the tallest is just 6-foot-2. Will Muhlbach is a springy forward who had a team-high 17 points. Strutz, the team's leading scorer, and David Sperling chipped in with 13 points each.

The first home game, by the way, is Jan. 14, against Fulton (Ill.) Christian. Then it's right back to the road.

“The game is just a lot faster,” Strutz said. “The guys are a lot bigger. I feel like they're stronger, too. And they have a lot more people on their team, on their rosters ... We're not used to that. We've only got about eight people on our varsity, really. They've got, like 15 guys they can rotate. So it's a lot different having to play a full game, and we never have a game that's easy.”

“We're getting there,” said Pospisil, whose school was rejected this week in a bid to join North-Linn in the Tri-Rivers Conference. “We've still got a long way to go, but I'm glad we made the change. It's fun playing good basketball every night.”

Here is the game boxscore:

AT TROY MILLS

CEDAR VALLEY CHRISTIAN (60): Will Muhlbach 7-12 3-5 17, Jeremy Strutz 6-14 0-0 13, Jon Landis 0-1 0-2 0, Nick Henderson 3-5 3-3 9, David Sperling 4-6 5-5 13, Spencer Zielke 1-4 2-2 4, Luke Long 1-1 0-2 2, Evan Koch 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 23-47 60.

NORTH-LINN (77): Jonathon Wolff 1-4 2-4 5, Jake Oswald 6-9 8-10 21, Nicholas Aberle 4-7 1-2 9, Hunter Pflughaupt 5-9 0-0 17, Justin Supple 2-5 5-6 9, Nick Price 3-3 1-2 8, Cody Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Kyler Burkey 0-4 0-0 0, Korbi Burkey 2-5 0-0 4, Tyler Cherry 1-1 0-0 2, Jonathon Boss 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Waring 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Novotny 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew McEvoy 0-0 0-0 0, Nic Peiffer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-51 17-26 77.

Halftime - North-Linn 42, Cedar Valley Christian 20.

3-point goals - Cedar Valley Christian 1-13 (Strutz 1-7, Zielke 0-3, Koch 0-3), North-Linn 8-19 (Wolff 1-3, Oswald 1-1, Pflughaupt 5-9, Supple 0-1, Price 1-1, Ky. Burkey 0-4).

Rebounds - Cedar Valley Christian (Muhlbach 9), North Linn 30 (Oswald 7).

Total fouls - Cedar Valley Christian 17, North-Linn 15.

Fouled out - Landis.

Technical foul - Cedar Valley Christian bench (failure to submit starting lineup in time).

Turnovers - Cedar Valley Christian 19, North-Linn 17.