Cedar Falls too big, too experienced, too good for C.R. Kennedy in 79-43 boys basketball win Tuesday

CEDAR RAPIDS - This was a bad matchup for Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s boys basketball team. Especially right now.

Honestly, Cedar Falls will be a bad matchup for most of its opponents this season. If not all of them.

The Tigers have size, experience and a Division I college player. They’re really good.

As in could win a state Class 4A championship good. That’s the impression you got Tuesday night in CF’s 79-43 blowout of Kennedy at the Cougar Den.

Too much height for a Cougars team that started four guys who are 6-foot or shorter. Too much experience, with three three-year regular players Will Gerdes (a 6-foot-8 Northern Iowa signee), Leyton Wolf (he’s 6-9) and sharp-shooting guard Jaydon Kimbrough.

Kennedy, meanwhile, have a pair of freshmen in the starting lineup in guards Kaden Gomez and Drew McKowan. Gomez had 19 of Kennedy’s 43 points here, including five 3-pointers.

“They’re ranked high for a reason,” Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen said of Cedar Falls. “We’re very inexperienced. Even the guys that played last year are playing different roles and different positions. With injuries and some other off-the-court distractions, we’re just kind of a long way behind right now.

“We’re getting better in practice. But obviously three of their guys have 60 games under their belt, this is their third year playing varsity basketball. And they just kind of expose our missteps or our mistiming, and that’s good. For us, to see it on film ... You never want it to end like this, but we are going to learn more from that film than we have our first 20 practices.”

Gerdes is a lefty shooter who can slide out and hit 3-point and mid-range jumpers, but considering the size edge he had on any Kennedy defender who tried to guard him, he was content to spend most of his time either low block or somewhere near or in the paint.

He had a game-high 24 games on 10-of-13 field-goal shooting. Wolf had 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting. The duo combined for 15 rebounds.

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely,” Gerdes said, when asked if he went into this game thinking he and Wolf could do some “eating” on the interior. “I think we ate a little bit. Our guards were able to find us, and I think as the game went on, we were able to play inside-out as they doubled. I think that’s what got it going for us.”

Kimbrough added 19 points, making all five of his 3-point attempts for Cedar Falls. The Tigers played without regular starting guard Carsen Gary, who was out injured.

Cedar Falls extended a nine-point lead after a quarter to 40-17 at halftime. Kennedy began the second half with a trio of treys to make it a 40-26 game, CF called a timeout and immediately shut down any thoughts of a miraculous Cougars comeback.

Cedar Falls built its lead back to 22 points after the third quarter and beyond that in the fourth.

“I think we’ve made strides in every single game. We still have a lot of growing to do with some new guys coming in off the bench especially,” Gerdes said. “But, yeah, I think this was a big jump for us tonight. Coach (Ryan) Schultz talks a lot about closing games, and we haven’t been doing that ... We started out slow again tonight in the third quarter, but I think we were able to bounce back a little bit better than we have. That’s something we have been trying to focus on a lot.”

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY

CEDAR FALLS (79): Leyton Wolf 8-11 0-2 17, Will Gerdes 10-13 4-8 24, Jaydon Kimbrough 7-9 0-0 19, Mason Woltz 0-2 0-0 0, Parker Berns 4-10 0-2 10, TaySean Ratleff 1-2 0-0 2, Ayden Moersfelder 1-1 0-0 2, Chase Terwilliger 0-1 1-2 1, Lincoln Walsworth 0-0 0-0 0, Stratton Range 1-1 0-0 3, Jude Hazell 1-1 1-1 3, Lukas Haller 0-1 0-0 0, Brody Hanna 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-53 6-15 79.

C.R. KENNEDY (43): Justin Powell 1-4 2-2 5, Kaden Gomez 7-13 0-0 19, Carter Cook 1-5 0-0 3, Drew McKowen 1-6 0-2 3, Jaxson Bean 2-10 2-6 7, Sharief Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, Lawson Neighbor 0-2 2-2 2, Jacob Solberg 1-3 0-0 2, Thierry Boyd 0-2 0-0 0, Thomas Iradukunda 0-0 0-0 0, Nathan Link 1-1 0-0 2, George Trovas 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Cole 0-0 0-0 0, Ryker Scheckel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-48 6-12.

Halftime - Cedar Falls 40, C.R. Kennedy 17. 3-point goals - Cedar Falls 7-17 (Wolf 1-3, Kimbrough 5-5, Woltz 0-2, Berns 0-4, Range 1-1, Haller 0-1, Hanna 0-1), C.R. Kennedy 9-24 (Powell 1-3, Gomez 5-8, Cook 1-5, McKowen 1-1, Bean 1-4, Thomas 0-1, Neighbor 0-2. Rebounds - Cedar Falls 38 (Gerdes 10), C.R. Kennedy 19 (Powell 3). Total fouls - Cedar Falls 10, C.R. Kennedy 13. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Cedar Falls 14, C.R. Kennedy 16.

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