New No. 1 Cedar Rapids Kennedy gets a career game from Micah Schlaak to blast No. 8 Dubuque Senior

DUBUQUE — When your best players, your all-state players, don’t really care too much if they get all the points in games, you’ve got the potential for something special.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy appears to have something special.

It was Micah Schlaak who took a lead scoring role Tuesday night for Class 4A’s top-ranked team, netting a career-high 26 points in Kennedy’s 66-44 win over No. 8 Dubuque Senior at Nora Gym.

With the opponent concentrating on preventing guards Kenzie Reed and Colby Dolphin, those aforementioned all-staters, from getting loose, that opened things up for the 6-foot-6 junior. He hit some 15-foot jumpers and all four of his 3-point attempts as Kennedy moved to 11-0.

Schlaak hadn’t taken a shot from beyond the arc all season coming into this game.

“Last year on the sophomore team, I hit a decent number of 3s,” he said. “In practice, we work on them all the time ... In games, I just haven’t been taking them, I guess.”

“Micah dropping 30 bombs like that, he’s been able to shoot it, he just doesn’t get those looks because he’s been playing down low,” said Reed. “But we went five-out, and he got a chance to step out and show what he can do.”

What he can do is provide yet another offensive weapon for a team that has a bunch. All five starters can make 3s, as can some guys coming off the bench.

That was proven true here, as Kennedy went 11 for 22 from distance, including 6 for 10 in the second half, as it pulled away. Leading scorer Dolphin, who came in averaging 16.7 points per game, didn’t make a field goal in the game and finished with just two points.

But he helped in other ways.

“We come out after halftime, and Colby was like ‘They’re not leaving me. If we use me as a screener, we can get some good shots. And we did,’” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “Micah stepped up. It was kind of Micah’s night, where they were going to help off him a little bit. He’s a good shooter. But with so many shooters, he needs to space the floor for us underneath the hoop, so he hasn’t done it this year.

“But they loaded up on his guy in the lane, he popped out and hit some shots.”

Cyrus Courtney added a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds for Kennedy. Reed had 11 points, though he was an uncustomary 4 for 10 from the field.

“We’re a really deep team. All of us can score as many points as we (need) to at anytime,” Reed said. “We all can really shoot, which makes it really nice, because if someone is having an off night, we know someone else is going to step up.”

“I guess I just wanted to move to an open spot,” said Schlaak, whose older brother, Caleb, was an all-state player at Kennedy and is now playing for Division II Truman State. “A lot of times my teammates would find me and hit me for an open shot. My shots weren’t hardly contested. It was just kind of an open shot, like we work on in practice”

Senior’s got some good length on its team and tried to use it against Kennedy. But the Rams turned over the basketball 21 times, and that’s just way too much against No. 1.

Jacob Williams had 11 points to lead Senior, which was upset this past Saturday night by Cedar Rapids Washington. Freshman forward Tevin Schultz added 10 points.

“Being No. 1 puts a target on your back, for sure,” McKowen said. “But I tried talking to them about it, and they didn’t want to hear it. It wasn’t a big deal to them. Just a mature team.”

AT DUBUQUE

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (66): Cyrus Courtney 5-13 1-1 12, Micah Schlaak 11-14 0-0 26, Carter Newhouse 2-2 0-0 5, Colby Dolphin 0-7 2-2 2, Kenzie Reed 4-10 0-0 11, Trey McKowen 2-6 1-2 6, Landon Deiters 0-0 1-2 1, Trevan Krumrei 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 25-53 5-7 66.

DUBUQUE SENIOR (44): Davonta Jackson 2-5 0-0 5, Tevin Schultz 5-10 0-0 10, Jacob Williams 5-8 0-0 11, Jonathan Wille 2-3 0-0 5, Hayden Jacobsmeier 3-7 0-0 6, Nick Kennedy 0-0 1-2 1, Jalen Johnson 1-1 2-2 4, Mason Sorensen 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 19-36 3-4 44.

Halftime - Kennedy 33, Senior 25. 3-point goals - Kennedy 11-22 (Courtney 1-1, Schlaak 4-4, Newhouse 1-1, Dolphin 0-3, Reed 3-8, McKowen 1-3, Krumrei 1-1), Senior 3-8 (Jackson 1-2, Williams 1-1, Wille 1-1, Jacobsmeier 0-3, Sorensen 0-1). Rebounds - Kennedy 22 (Courtney 11), Senior 25 (Williams 9). Total fouls - Kennedy 14, Senior 12. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Kennedy 8, Senior 21.

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