Cedar Rapids Kennedy blasts Marion in season opener, 82-37

MARION — It looked the part Tuesday night

Cedar Rapids Kennedy came into this boys’ basketball season with a pair of returning all-state guards, among others, who helped the Cougars to the semifinals of the 2022 state tournament. In other words, expectations.

Expectations of being one of the best teams in Class 4A. Expectations of getting back to the state tourney. Expectations of perhaps winning the whole thing.

A lot of games left to be played, for sure. Who knows how things ultimately shake out in March.

But the first expectation mentioned here? Yeah, Kennedy looked the part of one of the best teams in 4A in a 82-37 swatting of Marion at the Wolves gym.

“It was 32 minutes of us playing hard,” said Kennedy’s Colby Dolphin, one of those returning all-state guards. “We didn’t really shoot it well, shoot it the best. We just played defense. You look up in the second quarter, and they’ve only got six points, you’re doing something right on defense. We were making them really work on offense, made them see things that weren’t there. We were confusing them. Then the offense was just coming off the defense.”

Dolphin, Kenzie Reed (the other returning all-state guard) and junior forward Trevan Krumrei (a transfer from Linn-Mar) each had 11 points, which led the Cougars in this blowout. Thirteen players scored.

Kennedy got some perimeter scoring, some transition scoring, some interior scoring, some points on offensive rebounds. It started essentially four guards in Reed, Dolphin, Carter Newhouse and Trey McKowen, with 6-foot-6 big Micah Schlaak.

But the Cougars can go lengthy, too, with guys like the 6-5 Krumrei and 6-7 Landon Deiters. And forward Cyrus Courtney, a key piece last season, is still out of action with a broken hand suffered in football.

Depth, shooting, size, quickness, defensive ability, this club seems to have them all.

“I was really happy with our energy, just the intensity all game through,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “Good things happened, bad things happened, but we had genuine effort on both sides of the ball. We rebounded when we were supposed to, we made the right passes and scrambled around on defense.”

“Blowout win on the road the first game,” Reed said. “You can’t ask for much more than that.”

Keep in mind that this was no ordinary opponent Kennedy destroyed. Marion has a plethora of experienced players back from a Class 3A state tournament team of a year ago, including all-state guard Brayson Laube.

Kennedy put him through the grinder defensively. Laube ended with a team-high nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.

“Laube, we made him work for his buckets,” Reed said. “We made their point guard work bringing the ball up the court. We made them very uncomfortable dribbling, so that was definitely a key to the victory.”

AT MARION

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (82): Micah Schaak 4-6 1-1 9, Carter Newhouse 2-5 0-0 5, Trey McKowen 2-6 1-1 6, Colby Dolphin 5-10 0-0 11, Kenzie Reed 4-7 3-4 11, Griffin Gerdes 3-5 0-0 8, Trevan Krumrei 3-7 4-4 11, Landon Deiters 4-6 0-0 8, Jace Scott 1-3 0-0 2, Reid Hall 1-1 0-0 2, Nolan Grawe 1-2 0-0 2, Micah Jauhianen 0-0 0-0 0, Tristan Steichen 0-0 0-0 0, Braden Jordan 2-2 0-0 4, Donovan Slick-Driscoll 0-1 0-0 0, Reece Murray 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 33-62 9-10 82.

MARION (37): Alex Mota 2-4 0-0 4, Calen Claypool 2-4 1-2 5, Jordan Fischer 1-2 0-0 2, Brayson Laube 3-12 0-0 9, Myles Davis 1-9 0-0 3, Payton Hodges 1-6 0-0 3, Nathan Whalen 0--1 0-0 0, Trey Franck 0-2 0-0 0, Elijah Smith 0-2 1-2 1, Mason Kinney 1-3 1-2 4, Kaiden Griffith 1-1 0-0 2, Josh Noll 1-2 0-0 2, Logan Adams 0-1 0-0 0, Logan Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Owen Thilges 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 14-52 3-6 37.

End of First Quarter - Kennedy 19, Marion 4. Halftime - Kennedy 39, Marion 16. End of Third Quarter - Kenndy 65, Marion 25.

3-point goals - Kennedy 7-22 (Newhouse 1-4, McKowen 1-4, Dolphin 1-5, Gerdes 2-4, Krumrei 1-2, Scott 0-1, Murray 1-1), Marion 6-21 (Mota 0-2, Fischer 0-1, Laube 3-7, Davis 1-4, Hodges 1-3, Whalen 0-1, Kinney 1-2, Adams 0-1). Rebounds - Kennedy 35 (Scott 5), Marion 30 (Claypool 8). Total fouls - Kennedy 11, Marion 14. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Kennedy 8, Marion 21.

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