C.R. Kennedy’s 23rd consecutive regular-season win is a tough one

CEDAR RAPIDS — In the past season-plus, Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s boys’ basketball team has had virtually zero close games and virtually zero games where its transition offense didn’t play an important role in a blowout win.

An exception was Tuesday night. For both of those things.

Kennedy slugged and slogged its way to a 51-47 win over Cedar Falls in a matchup at Kennedy of certainly two of the top 10 teams in Class 4A and certainly two of the top three or four Eastern Iowa teams in 4A. If not the top two.

This was a half-court brawl all the way, an intense and physical affair that reminded everyone of a postseason game, a state tournament game. Maybe it will be in March.

“It was a knock-down, drag-out game,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “Good defensive teams don’t let you score easy points, and they are a good defensive team this year. They’re out pressuring the ball, and obviously have rim stoppers on the back side, rim protectors on the back side.

“They don’t turn it over, so you don’t get run outs. They killed us on the boards, and it’s really tough to run when you’re scrambling for the rebound, too. They were trying to make it a half-court game on their side, we were trying to be the same on our side. I thought our kids did a great job of adjusting.”

Kennedy (3-0) played only one game last season in the regular season that was decided by single digits, and that was against ... Cedar Falls, a win by nine. Every other game was a rout, with the exception of that first-round state tournament upset loss to Pleasant Valley.

Kennedy’s first two games this season were wins by 50 and 60 points.

“Really, the first half-court game we had to play last year was the one we lost at the state tournament,” McKowen said. “We didn’t really know how to react or adjust or play in that moment. So always having this to reflect on now, I think will go a long way for us.”

This one was 12-up after one quarter and 25-24 Kennedy at halftime. The Cougars expanded their edge to as many as nine in the third quarter, with Cedar Falls (2-1) never getting closer than four the rest of the way.

Neither team shot it well, which goes back to that defense thing talked about earlier. Cedar Falls shot 40 percent from the field and was 5 of 26 from 3-point range, Kennedy shot 37 percent and went 6 of 23 from beyond the arc.

Trey McKowen, Coach McKowen’s junior son, led Kennedy with 17 points, including a pair of 3s and a couple of game-clinching free throws in the final minute. That’s his varsity career high.

“Cedar Falls is a great team. I’d like to start off by saying that,” Trey McKowen said. “They’re a very good team, and I think they’ll make a deep run in the playoffs. They remind me a lot ourselves, actually. They apply a lot of ball pressure, set a lot of high-ball screens, very tall. So when we were driving, we had to create stuff that we usually don’t have to create.

“I thought we did a good job of improvising our game plan.”

Keegan Steege came off the bench to hit a couple of 3-points and score 12 points to lead Cedar Falls (2-1), which has a nice mix of solid ballhandlers at guard and size everywhere else. The Tigers start 6-foot-8 Cade Courbat and beefy 6-4 Jake Peters, then bring 6-8 William Gerdes and 6-6 Leyton Wolf off the bench.

But this was still a 23rd-consecutive regular-season win for Kennedy.

“I think this helps us tremendously,” Trey McKowen said. “Toward tournament time, these are the kinds of games you are going to get. It’s great that we could have these games early in the season.”

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY

CEDAR FALLS (47): Logan Wroe 1-5 0-0 2, Jake Peters 2-4 0-0 4, Cade Courbat 5-9 0-0 11, Anthony Galvin 0-9 0-0 0, Aiden Heth 0-0 0-0 0, William Gerdes 4-8 0-1 9, Keegan Steege 5-8 0-0 12, Leyton Wolf 1-3 0-0 2, Jaydon Kimbrough 2-4 0-0 5, Jordan Townsend 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 21-52 0-1 47.

C.R. KENNEDY (51): Trevan Krumrei 0-5 0-0 0, Micah Schlaak 6-11 0-0 14, Cyrus Courtney 3-11 2-2 9, Joe Bean 3-6 2-2 0, Trey McKowen 6-12 3-4 17, Griffin Gerdes 0-3 0-0 0, Landon Deiters 0-0 0-0 0, Ruben Schlaak 0-1 0-0 0, Rashad Gatewood 1-1 0-0 2, Pierce McCrary 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-51 7-8 51.

Halftime — Kennedy 25, Cedar Falls 24. 3-point goals — Cedar Falls 5-26 (Wroe 0-2, Courbat 1-4, Galvin 0-5, Gerdes 1-5, Steege 2-4, Wolf 0-2, Kimbrough 1-3, Townsend 0-1), Kennedy 6-23 (Krumrei 0-3, M. Schlaak 2-5, Courtney 1-5, Bean 1-2, McKowen 2-4, Gerdes 0-3, R. Schlaak 0-1). Rebounds — Cedar Falls 35 (Courbat 7), Kennedy 28 (Bean 9). Total fouls — Cedar Falls 14, Kennedy 7. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Cedar Falls 15, Kennedy 8.

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