An important, overtime victory for Cedar Rapids Kennedy

CEDAR RAPIDS - As hard as it is to imagine, they kind of needed it.

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy Cougars picked up a pick me up Saturday night in the ServPro Crossover Challenge, outlasting Johnston in overtime, 64-61, at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse.

A program that isn’t used to losing, that played in last year’s Class 4A state championship basketball game, that had won 46 regular-season games in a row until a month ago kind of needed a victory, especially against a good opponent. Kennedy lost to Cedar Falls right before the holiday break and Friday night to Cedar Rapids Prairie, ending a win streak against Metro opponents that dated about five years.

A loss here and ... well, there wasn’t a loss here. Trey McKowen scored 31 points, including the first five points of OT as Kennedy (5-2) got it done.

“Didn’t sleep very well last night, for sure,” said McKowen. “This was just such a huge win. When you look at a Kennedy team, you don’t expect it to be 4-3. We’re used to winning games. So this was such a big one, just to turn it back around.”

Kennedy has McKowen and Landon Deiters as experienced guys, but the rest of the playing rotation is plenty green, and not just Kennedy kelly green. That has meant some hiccups early this season.

Beating a quality team like Johnston (7-2) might cure those hiccups. The Dragons led by seven points at halftime and rallied from seven down in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

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McKowen was fouled on an end-of-shot-clock 3-point attempt to open the extra four minutes, making all three free throws. After a turnover, he hit a 15-foot jumper from the corner to put Kennedy up for good, 60-55.

“He was rolling a little bit tonight,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen, Trey’s dad. “We were trying to get him into some different actions to make it tough on them. He did a good job. He did a great job coming off hard on that handoff with three seconds to go (on the shot clock) ... That’s a good way to start overtime.”

Coach McKowen also was asked the importance of getting Saturday’s win. He agreed it was significant.

“Of course,” he said. “You always want to see how your kids respond after a loss or a game where you didn’t play well. I thought our first five minutes of the game were really good. We had good intensity, defensively we were getting some stops. Johnston is one of the most physical teams in the half court that you’re going to see all year. Not just physical, but they have good bodies. They’re big, strong kids.

“So we knew that it was going to be tough getting downhill (offensively). I was kind of excited to see how we were going to handle it. I thought at times we did a really good job. They’re so good (defensively), they make you look bad at times offensively. We had to be a little more patient than we want to be, but you’ve got to take what they give you.”

Reuben Schlaak was Kennedy’s other double-figure scorer with 11 points, but it got something from a lot of different guys. Like Deiters, who made three huge defensive plays in overtime, blocking a shot and diving on loose balls twice and having the alertness to call timeout to secure his team possession.

“We just tried to win all the loose balls, because that was such a big thing last night that we didn’t do,” Trey McKowen said. “Tonight it was a big point of emphasis. I think that won us the game at the end of the day.”

Tino Daye led Johnston with 15 points, though he fouled out in the fourth quarter. His technical foul midway through the third allowed Kennedy to score six points that gave it a seven-point lead.

Jalen Richardson added 12 points for the Dragons, including a couple of clutch treys late in regulation.

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