Boys’ basketball notebook: Center Point-Urbana goes from 10-game losing streak to start last season to a conference champ this season

CEDAR RAPIDS — He remembers a conversation he had with then sophomore forward Cooper Grimm after a loss last season.

Center Point-Urbana dropped its first 10 games and player confidence was expectedly low.

“I just told him we cared about them,” said CPU Coach Mike Halac. “I told him we believed in them and that better times were ahead.”

This turned out to be prophetic, as Center Point-Urbana went on to win seven of its final 12 games, setting the stage for a wonderful 2024-25 season.

The Stormin’ Pointers have a 13-7 record and recently clinched the Wamac Conference East Division championship. The regular-season finale is next week against Charles City, and a win would double CPU’s total from a season ago.

Not bad.

“We had a great core group of kids coming back from last year. We felt we were young last year,” Halac said. “Had some great senior leadership last year, but overall we were young. And a lot of those kids just committed to get better all offseason, as all of our kids do at CPU. But they made a strong push for it, they were dedicated with all the offseason work they did. They even wanted extra gym time, extra time to get into the gym and work.

“This is just a committed group that to get to the point where we are this year had to go through some hard times last year. It pays off in the end.”

Halac always has stressed defense as a coach, and this team has played it well. It is balanced offensively, with the four highest scorers averaging between 8.2 and 12.2 points per game.

Grimm is at the high end there, senior Jackson Brincks the low end. Juniors Kinnick Covington (10.9 ppg) and Cayle Estling (9.9) are in the middle.

“We have a group of kids that are really talented offensively,” Halac said. “It used to be that if we could get to 50 (points), we felt we were going to be in a good competitive spot to win a game. But we’re able to put the ball in the hole a lot more this year, and it’s a testament to these guys and all the hard work because it’s not a lot of new things we’re doing on offense. We’re just kind of letting them play free and giving them the opportunity to make reads and be basketball players.”

This is just the second season Center Point-Urbana has been in the Wamac’s East Division. The addition of Grinnell kicked the Stormin’ Pointers there.

Clear Creek Amana went unbeaten in division play to win the Wamac West.

Around the hoop

– The postseason officially begins Friday night with 17 opening-round district games in Class 1A.

Games involving Gazette-area teams are North Cedar at East Buchanan, West Central at Clayton Ridge, Highland at Rivermont Collegiate and Meskwaki Settlement School at English Valleys. Opening tipoff for all is 7 p.m.

A full slate of 1A district games is on tap Monday night. First-round 2A games also will be played, with the top two seeds in each district receiving first-round byes.

Postseason pairings for Class 3A and 4A will be released by the Iowa High School Athletic Association on Monday afternoon.

– Schools that have clinched conference championships are Center Point-Urbana (Wamac Conference East Division), Clear Creek Amana (Wamac West), Bellevue Marquette (Tri-Rivers Conference East Division), Alburnett and North Linn (Tri-Rivers West), Cascade (River Valley Conference North Division), Iowa City Regina (River Valley South), Keota (South Iowa Cedar League East Division), North Mahaska (SICL West), North Fayette Valley (Uppera Iowa Conference), La Porte City Union (North Iowa Cedar League East Division) and Hillcrest Academy and WACO (Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division).

Decorah and Charles City play Friday night for the Northeast Iowa Conference title. If Decorah wins, it wins the championship outright, if Charles City wins, the teams share it.

Cedar Rapids Prairie and Cedar Falls are tied for first place in the Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division with a week to go in the regular season. Prairie won the only matchup between the teams two weeks ago in double overtime.

Linn-Mar leads the MVC Mississippi Division by a game over Dubuque Senior, with the teams playing Friday night in Dubuque.

– Every team in The Gazette area has won at least once this season. The only undefeated team is North Fayette Valley (21-0).

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com