Cedar Rapids Kennedy overwhelms Class 4A No. 5 Cedar Rapids Prairie

CEDAR RAPIDS - Jackson Bowman is playing injured, and it has affected his game. Until Tuesday night.

The Cedar Rapids Kennedy forward looked A-OK and then some from a health standpoint in the Cougars’ impressive 62-46 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie on the far southwest side.

He had a game-high 19 points to lead the Cougars (3-1) past Class 4A’s fifth-ranked team. That included a first-quarter flurry and a steal, dunk and and-one free throw with a bit over three minutes left that extended Kennedy’s lead to 13 points and pretty much ended any and all drama.

“This sets us up really well,” Bowman said. “I think we’ve had the toughest schedule so far before Christmas. So it kind of shows other teams what we’re made of and what we’re going to be.”

The 6-foot-7 Bowman injured his ribs after being fouled on a driving layup attempt in Kennedy’s opener two weeks ago against Marion. His exposed side hit the padded wall underneath one of the baskets at the Kennedy gym very hard.

He has continued to play but came into Tuesday night’s game averaging just 4.7 points and hasn’t been much of a factor.

“It was just a few dislocated and the muscles kind of worked their way out,” Bowman said. “I was finally able to play (at full strength) tonight. It sucks getting hurt. I was a little down at first, I’m not going to lie. But I just wanted to put my teammates in better position with what I couldn’t do to (help them).”

“He’s starting to feel better,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “I think the first part of it was the uncomfortable-ness, getting comfortable with it hurting a little bit and still playing the right way. He was kind of protecting it for about a week.”

This win for Kennedy was not just about Bowman. Guard Carson Blietz added 17 points and guard Colby Dolphin 16, as the Cougars built as much as a 16-point lead.

Prairie (4-1) closed within four early in the fourth quarter on a Gabe Burkle and-one inside three-point play, but Blietz hit a turnaround jumper and two free throws to extend the lead back to eight almost immediately.

Prairie turned it over 16 times and shot just 33 percent from the field, missing several open looks inside and outside. There was one stretch in the second half in which guard Jake Walter, the team’s second-leading scorer, had three consecutive wide-open looks from beyond the 3-point arc but couldn’t hit any of them.

Burkle, the 6-7 center who will officially sign Wednesday to play football at Iowa State, led the Hawks with 11 points, six under his average. Elijah Ward added 10 points.

“We knew they were going to try and cause chaos (defensively),” said Prairie Coach Jeremy Rickertsen. “They do a good job of stunting and running and jumping. As far as getting the ball inside, I thought the first half we got it in a couple of times but Gabe was kind of rushed and wasn’t finishing. The second half we got it in a little more and he was doing a better job. Then we kind of got away from that, and that’s on us as coaches.”

Kennedy’s lone loss came to second-ranked Ames and ISU basketball commit Tamin Lipsey a week and a half ago. It has blowout wins against Prairie, Cedar Rapids Washington and Marion.

“I thought we were really explosive on the offensive side when our defense was clicking tonight,” McKowen said. “When we got clean rebounds, when we got steals and turnovers, our offense was really good. Then we had to grind the (half-court) offense out, got good looks most of the night. Didn’t turn it over much.”

“The only way this is a bad thing is if we don’t learn from it,” Rickertsen said. ”Some things came to light, and I guess the positive spin on it is that they are all correctable. Pretty easily correctable if we can stay focused. It’s a good opportunity to learn if we do that.”

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS PRAIRIE

C.R. KENNEDY (62): Jackson Bowman 8-12 2-4 19, Craig Mills 0-0 0-0 0, Colby Dolphin 5-7 2-2 16, Carson Blietz 5-9 4-4 17, Kenzie Reed 2-6 4-4 8, Cyrus Courtney 0-2 0-1 0, Connor Jeffords 1-4 0-0 2, Carter Newhouse 0-1 0-0 0, Brenden Linde 0-0 0-1 0, Jack Schissel 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 12-16 62.

C.R. PRAIRIE (46): Reid Burkle 2-3 1-2 6, Gabe Burkle 4-10 3-5 11, Elijah Ward 4-10 1-2 10, Jack Wagemester 2-6 0-0 6, Jake Walter 1-12 2-4 4, Everett Koch 1-2 1-2 3, Brayden Duerksen 0-1 0-0 0, Moses Each 0-0 0-0 0, Makelle Taylor 2-3 0-0 6, Dionte Fliss 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Boerschel 0-0 0-0 0, B.J. Calamese 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-48 8-15 46.

Halftime - Kennedy 31, Prairie 19. 3-point goals - Kennedy 8-20 (Bowman 1-3, Dolphin 4-4, Blietz 3-5, Reed 0-3, Courtney 0-1, Jeffords 0-1, Newhouse 0-1, Schissel 0-2), Prairie 6-19 (R. Burkle 1-1, Ward 1-1, Wagemester 2-6, Walter 0-6, Koch 0-1, Taylor 2-3, Fliss 0-1). Rebounds - Kennedy 26 (Courtney 5), Prairie 37 (R. Burkle 9). Total fouls - Kennedy 16, Prairie 16. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Kennedy 9, Prairie 16.

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