Cedar Rapids Prairie finds a cure for its close-loss-itis

CEDAR RAPIDS — Those wouldas. Then the couldas, man.

And all those shouldas. A ton of them.

It had a chance to be a deflated Cedar Rapids Prairie boys’ basketball team that came off its holiday break Tuesday night. The Hawks were 1-5, and how it got to that 1-5 was demoralizing.

A three-point loss to Burlington, a two-point loss to Iowa City High, a one-point buzzer-beater loss to Linn-Mar.

“We’ve talked about we were close to being 4-2 at the break,” said Prairie Coach Jeremy Rickertsen, after his team’s 59-31 win at Cedar Rapids Jefferson. “We just didn’t get a couple of bounces. They’ll keep working. I think this game will be a springboard for us moving forward.”

Prairie (2-5) is coming off a special 2021-22 season in which it made it to the Class 4A state tournament semifinals. A lot of experienced talent graduated from that team, meaning these Hawks are a work in progress.

This game was progress. Brayden Duerksen had 16 points and Reid Burkle 10 points and 10 rebounds as Prairie sprinted to an 18-3 lead after the first quarter.

“I thought this was big for us getting our confidence back,” said Prairie’s Jack Wagemester, one of two returning starters from last season. Burkle is the other.

“It’s been tough, those (close losses) hurt a lot,” Wagemester said. “But I’m proud of our guys for working hard every day in practice. We’ve been practicing hard in and out, and I feel like a lot of us haven’t lost that energy. We’re just looking forward to the next game.”

That next game is Friday at Dubuque Wahlert.

“I think this was a testament to the work the guys put in over the break,” Rickertsen said. “I thought we had really, really good practices, which isn’t always the case when you’re coming back after having four or five days off. You’re not in a routine. But I thought they came out really focused, and you saw the fruits of that tonight. I thought we got contributions from a lot of people. We shared the ball well. It was good to have a game like this.”

Prairie dominated the interior offensively and on the boards, got out on the fast break and limited Jefferson (2-6) from doing much of anything. The J-Hawks had just eight field goals in the game and turned the basketball over 18 times.

Not optimal.

Rashad Gatewood led Jeff with just nine points, followed closely by Dom Martinez-White’s eight. Jefferson won its first two games of the season but have lost six in a row.

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AT CEDAR RAPIDS JEFFERSON

C.R. PRAIRIE (69): Reid Burkle 5-8 0-0 10, Makelle Taylor 3-7 0-0 7, Brayden Duerksen 7-8 2-3 16, Jack Wagemester 3-5 0-0 7, Apollo Payne 0-2 0-0 0, Mekhi Gossitt 2-3 0-0 6, Matthew Hilleman 2-3 1-2 5, Logan Wagemester 1-3 0-0 3, Jace Rickertsen 1-2 0-0 3, Devin Ikeda 1-3 0-0 2, Reid Meier 1-2 0-0 3, Crew Johnson 1-2 0-0 2, Sean Steinbrech 0-1 0-0 0, Caden Roffey 2-2 0-0 5, Reid Manternach 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-51 3-5 69.

C.R. JEFFERSON (31): Jacob Strain 1-1 0-0 2, Rashad Gatewood 1-4 6-8 9, Adam Panoch 0-0 4-4 4, Avonus Hodges 2-7 0-0 4, Logan Augustine 0-3 0-0 0, Abram Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Marty Blakey 0-3 0-0 0, Mateyo Smallwood 1-4 0-0 3, Dom Martinez-White 3-8 0-0 8, Carson Dighton 0-3 1-2 1, Tyler Huston 0-2 0-0 0, Colin Cano 0-0 0-0 0, Rhys Mead 0-0 0-0 0, Preston Blanchett Jr. 0-0 0-0 0, Simon Ntitetereza 0-0 0-0 0, Daylon Howze 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Wilcox 0-0 0-0 0, Zac Henderson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 8-37 11-14 31.

Halftime - Prairie 35, Jefferson 18. 3-point goals - Prairie 8-15 (Taylor 1-4, J. Wagemester 0-3, Gossitt 2-2, L. Wagemester 1-1, Rickertsen 1-2, Meier 1-1, Johnson 0-1, Roffey 1-1), Jefferson 4-16 (Gatewood 1-2, Hodges 0--2, Augustine 0-3, Blakey 0-1, Smallwood 1-2, Dighton 0-2, Henderson 0-1). Rebounds - Prairie 37 (Burkle 10), Jefferson 18 (Panoch 7). Total fouls - Prairie 17, Jefferson 7. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Prairie 15, Jefferson 18.

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