Boys basketball notebook: Move to the Upper Iowa Conference working out just fine for Waukon

CEDAR RAPIDS — This has been a really good move from a purely logistical standpoint. The wins haven’t been bad, either.

Waukon’s boys basketball team went into its big game Thursday night at Crestwood with a 7-0 record. The Indians are well on their way to surpassing last season’s win total of 10.

Going from the disbanded Northeast Iowa Conference to the Upper Iowa Conference, along with Crestwood and New Hampton, has been a good thing on the court. And also off of it.

“Certainly playing some of the bigger teams in the Northeast Iowa Conference made it different for us,” said head coach Jed Hemann. “This Tuesday-Friday schedule, having all those conference games and not having to play our non-conference games whenever someone would be willing to play us has really helped us, too. Schedule wise the move has been a really good thing for us.”

The UIC has been split into two divisions, with Waukon, Crestwood, New Hampton, North Fayette Valley, MFL MarMac and South Winneshiek placed in the Large Division. The Small Division consists of West Central, Turkey Valley, Lansing Kee, Postville, Clayton Ridge and Elkader Central.

Teams play their division mates twice, home and away, and play the six teams in the other division once: three games at home and three on the road. Waukon has six conference wins: three against Large Division opponents and three against Small Division foes.

The seventh win has been against Grand Meadow, a school from Minnesota.

“Our kids have really bought into a lot of the stuff that we have been preaching,” Hemann said. “Taking care of the ball well, we have been pretty efficient and executed well offensively, and then kind of a big key for us this year, too, has been rebounding. Most of the time we have been rebounding well. We’re not an overly big team, but we feel like if we rebound well, we can play with a lot of teams.”

Guards Vaughn Stegen, Issiah Moudy and Talin Hemann (the coach’s son) have been Waukon’s three leading scorers at 15.7, 12.7 and 10.1 points per game, respectively. Stegen and Moudy are juniors, Hemann a sophomore.

Zach Perkins and Colton O’Neill have been the other primary starters. Perkins and Hemann are two of seven players on the team who are 6-foot-3, the tallest on the roster.

“We get up and down the floor well, have some guards that can attack the basket, too,” Coach Hemann said. “We’ve got some pretty aggressive kids and some length on the wings that can cause some teams problems when we’re on defense, too. Our kids do a pretty good job defensively getting into passing lanes and using some of that aggressiveness and athleticism that we have.”

Around the hoop

— The Mississippi Valley Conference went 3-4 at last weekend’s Crossover Challenge even at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

The winners were Linn-Mar, Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids Kennedy. Dubuque Senior, Cedar Rapids Washington, Cedar Rapids Prairie and Iowa City Liberty all lost their games.

The rest of the conference scoreboard saw the CIML (Central Iowa Metro League) go 2-1, the Alliance Conference and Little Hawkeye Conference each go 1-0 and the Mississippi Athletic Conference go 0-2.

Johnston and Ankeny won for the CIML, with top-ranked Waukee Northwest falling to No. 2 Cedar Falls. Ames won for the Alliance and Norwalk for the Little Hawkeye. Bettendorf and North Scott of the MAC each lost their games.

The second leg of the Crossover Challenge is Feb. 7 in Central Iowa and features five games that have yet to be determined. The 10 teams playing are Ankeny, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Cedar Rapids Washington, Des Moines Roosevelt, Johnston, Linn-Mar, Norwalk, Waukee Northwest and West Des Moines Valley.

— Kennedy has come out of the holiday break with a pair of big victories. The Cougars rolled then Class 4A eighth-ranked Bettendorf at the Crossover Challenge, 63-45, and knocked off 3A No. 3 Cedar Rapids Xavier, 67-60, in overtime Tuesday night.

Kennedy (4-3) got 22 points from Lawson Neighbor in that latter win and 20 from freshman Drew McKowen. Both came off the bench.

— Solon is off to a 9-0 start thanks in no small part to a move in. A notable move in.

Junior guard Tate McCollum is averaging 21.6 points per game for the Spartans, their only double-figures scorer. He’s the youngest son of first-year University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum.

Not big at 5-foot-10, Tate McCollum is a tremendous shooter who is averaging four 3-pointers made per game.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com