Cedar Rapids Kennedy comes up short against Valley in 4A boys’ state basketball championship game

DES MOINES — The thing about this West Des Moines Valley basketball team is you didn’t get to see it at full strength much this season.

Point guard Zay Robinson missed time early with an injury. When he came back, Curtis Stinson Jr. got hurt and missed a chunk of games.

Those are the Tigers’ best players: Stinson a future Division I college player and Robinson a future D-I football guy.

Yet everyone was together this week at the state tournament, even though Robinson was battling an ankle problem. And that was good enough for Valley to go back to back, a third-quarter run giving the Tigers a double-digit lead that ended up quelling Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 63-59, Friday night in the Class 4A championship game.

Valley (21-5) surprised a ton of people by winning it all last season despite a team filled with sophomores. With the entire starting lineup back next season, needless to say it’ll be a huge favorite to get a three-peat.

“We’ve been injured, had ups and downs. A lot of stuff,” said Stinson Jr., the son of the former Iowa State standout guard. “Being able to come here and win, it’s a great feeling.”

Stinson didn’t play in the late-January regular-season game between these teams, which Kennedy won, 60-43. He had 18 points and nine rebounds here.

Robinson added 14 points, but 6-foot-9 Trevin Jirak may have been the biggest factor. He finished with 19 interior points, pulled down eight rebounds and swatted away five Kennedy shots.

Jirak and being unable to get any consistent offense going foiled Kennedy’s hopes of going undefeated. The Cougars finished 25-1.

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“Yeah, I think it got down to that,” said Kennedy’s Micah Schlaak. “I feel that also we let (Jirak) get too many easys. We rotated to shooters, and he would just get easy buckets. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was definitely a combination of the two, for sure.”

Kennedy shot just 40.4 percent from the field, missing looks inside and outside. The Cougars were 6 of 27 from beyond the arc, with four of those makes coming in the fourth quarter when they were able to slice what was at one time a 12-point deficit to as few as five with under three minutes to go.

Trey McKowen led Kennedy with 17 points in a really good performance. Schlaak added 14 and Joe Bean 12.

“I’d say it was a little bit of both on the offensive and defensive sides” Bean said.

“Shots didn’t go down,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “We didn’t shoot our percentage. Our defense was good, we held them kind of where we felt we needed to hold them defensively to win the game. We got really good shots. We talked all year that we’re going to take team shots, whether they go in or they don’t go in. We didn’t finish around the hoop a few times, so maybe that’s three games in three days. Maybe we were hoping to get a foul, and we didn’t get a foul. Whatever it is, it’s just part of a sport.”

Kennedy had a 23-22 halftime lead, but Valley scored nine of the first 11 points coming out of the break to go up 33-25. The Tigers were up 10 going to the fourth.

“That was the deciding factor,” Trey McKowen said. “They went on a run there in the third quarter, and it was over after that.”

This was a weird game in that Kennedy was whistled for three technical fouls. Cyrus Courtney got one toward the end of the third for allegedly inappropriate talk, Coach McKowen got one with 2:46 left for arguing a call against his team, and Schlaak was given one with 0.5 seconds remaining for intentionally pushing the basketball out of bounds after his meaningless putback.

Some chirping at the end of the game from players on both teams created a minor issue, but the teams ended up exchanging plaudits in the postgame handshake line. Schools from the Central Iowa Metro League have won the last five 4A championships.

A tough ending for Kennedy, though not as tough as going unbeaten, then losing in the state tournament quarterfinals last season. A 47-2 record over two years, though, ain’t too shabby.

“When you look back at it, did you cut any corners? Nope, we didn’t cut any corners,” Coach McKowen said. “Were you great teammates and great people? Yes. What I shared with them, more importantly, is that you made people around you better. You made Cedar Rapids join with you, no matter what school it was. So many texts today about ‘We’re pulling for you tonight.’ From every school. Not just Cedar Rapids Kennedy people.

“In life, it’s about making people around you better, and that’s the fantastic part about this team. Everybody loved them because of the people they were first. They were high-character kids, they go about it the right way, and they had some success, so they’re easy to cheer for.”

West Des Moines Valley 63, Cedar Rapids Kennedy 59

AT WELLS FARGO ARENA

WEST DES MOINES VALLEY (63): Jayden McGregory 0-2 0-0 0, Kiki Deng 4-8 1-2 12, Trevin Jirak 7-10 5-6 19, Zay Robinson 4-8 5-8 14, Curtis Stinson Jr. 6-10 6-6 18, Kyle Cason 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-39 17-22 63.

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (59): Cyrus Courtney 1-6 0-0 3, Trevan Krumrei 0-3 1-2 1, Micah Schlaak 5-14 3-3 14, Trey McKowen 8-16 0-0 17, Joe Bean 4-13 2-2 12, Griffin Gerdes 4-4 0-0 10, Pierce McCrary 0-0 0-0 0, Landon Deiters 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-57 6-7 59.

Halftime - Kennedy 23, Valley 22. 3-point goals - Valley 4-11 (Deng 3-7, Robinson 1-3, McGregory 0-1), Kennedy 7-26 (McKowen 1-6, Courtney 1-2, Schlaak 1-7, Krumrei 0-2, Bean 2-7, Gerdes 2-2). Rebounds - Valley 35 (Stinson 9), Kennedy 18 (Courtney 6). Total fouls - Valley 13, Kennedy 18. Technical fouls - Courtney, Schlaak, Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen). Fouled out - Schlaak. Assists - Valley 16 (McGregory 8), Kennedy 5 (Courtney 3). Turnovers - Valley 17, Kennedy 9.

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