Boys’ basketball opening night one smashing success for Cedar Rapids Kennedy

CEDAR RAPIDS — A year ago, Marion stunned Cedar Rapids Kennedy in an early-season boys’ basketball game.

This was nowhere near that game. Not remotely close to it.

Kennedy allowed the first four points but countered with the next 16 and went on to shellac the Wolves, 93-59, in the season opener Tuesday night at Kennedy. Revenge is a dish served, period, whether it’s hot or cold.

“We knew we wanted our get back, and that was really important to us,” said fine junior Kennedy point guard Kenzie Reed. “In practice, we kind of sat that in the back of our minds that they got us last year. We shot it really well tonight, we got up and defended. Our pressure really got them going and turned them over, so that was big.”

It’s just one game, but this Cougars group appears to have a lot of good parts. The three-person guard court of Reed, junior Colby Dolphin and Cedar Rapids Jefferson transfer Carson Blietz is as good as you’ll see around here.

They combined for 57 points in this game: 25 from Reed, 18 from Dolphin and 14 from Blietz. There are plenty of other guys to go with them, this Kennedy team being very deep.

Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen said he wanted to get 11 guys early minutes Tuesday, which he did, but it was so difficult because there wasn’t anyone who honestly deserved to come out of the game.

The only bad thing to happen was what appeared to be a rib injury to starting forward Jackson Bowman in the first when he went in hard for a driving shot and/or dunk but got his attempt blocked away by Marion’s high-flying Alex Mota.

“We think we have something special,” McKowen said. “We have a lot of shooters, a lot of depth and a lot of guys who can handle the ball. Then we have two really good bigs and then two kind of forwards who are super athletic and can kind of fill in a little bit.”

McKowen was asked if the biggest problem he might face is finding enough floor time for so many kids who can legit play.

“It’s a huge problem,” he said. “I told the guys that number one, compete every day in practice. Number two, if you don’t like what’s going on and you’ve got bad body language, it’s not fair for me to put you back in there just so you feel better about yourself. You’ve got to go out there and do something for the team. It’s not always going good, you’re not always going to make the right play on defense, but it’s how you respond. That’s even more important this year than it was in other years because sometimes kids could have mistakes and they were skilled, so you had to ride with them.

“But we don’t have to with this group. As long we can embrace it, embrace that ‘It might not be my night. but it’s going to be someone else’s,’ and we continue to celebrate in each other’s successes, then we’ll be just fine.”

Kennedy led after a quarter, 27-16, and by a 51-34 edge at halftime. It was a 70-48 game headed to the fourth.

Kennedy’s pressure defense created 20 Marion turnovers that turned into a ton of Cougars points. Outstanding junior guard Brayson Laube led everyone in scoring with a game-high 35 points, making 13 of his 17 shots from the field.

That included going 8 of 11 from 3-point range. Laube always has been able to shoot it, but he showed great improvement in his dribble-drive game here, which portends a strong season ahead.

“Obviously we would have liked the result to be different,” said Marion Coach Pete Messerli. “In the long run, we’d rather play a game like this and unfortunately get it taken to us. It gives us plenty to work on. We got put into some totally uncomfortable situations, which, again, if use it correctly will be beneficial to us, even in the short term.”

“This is a sign of what we are, what we’re gonna be, what we can be, what we will be,” Reed said. “I’m confident in my boys, and I’m confident in myself.”

AT C.R. KENNEDY

MARION (59): Boede Rahe 3-3 0-0 6, Cael Hodges 0-4 0-1, Kaden Frommelt 1-3 0-0 2, Alex Mota 3-7 0-0 7, Brayson Laube 13-17 0-1 35, Payton Hodges 1-4 0-0 2, Mason Kinney 0-3 0-0 0, Elijah Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Myles Davis 1-2 0-0 3, Nathan Whalen 1-4 0-0 3, Jordan Fischer 0-2 0-0 0, Ryan Whitson 1-1 0-0 2, Jaquan Matthews 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 0-2 59.

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (93): Jackson Bowman 2-5 0-0 4, Craig Mills 4-5 0-2 8, Colby Dolphin 6-12 2-4 18, Carson Blietz 5-7 0-0 14, Kenzie Reed 7-13 6-8 25 Cyrus Courtney 3-8 1-2 8, Jack Schissel 0-3 2-4 2, Carter Newhouse 0-1 0-0 0, Connor Jeffords 2-3 4-7 8, Isaiah Morgan 0-0 0-0 0, Brenden Linde 1-1 2-5 4, Dkhai Pope 0-0 0-0 0, Devon Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Ryker Stelling 1-1 0-0 2, Tristan Steichen 0-0 0-0 0, Gannon Hall 0-1 1-2 1, Jacob O’Shea 0-0 0-0 0, Carson Lang 0-0 0-0 0, Aiden McGrane 0-0 0-0 0, Micah Jauhianien 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-61 17-32 93.

Halftime - Kennedy 51, Marion 34. 3-point goals - Marion 11-28 (C. Hodges 0-4, Mota 1-5, Laube 8-11, P. Hodges 0-1, Kinney 0-2, Davis 1-2, Whalen 1-2, Fischer 0-1), Kennedy 12-27 (Bowman 0-1, Dolphin 4-8, Blietz 4-5, Reed 3-8, Courtney 1-2, Hall 0-1). Rebounds - Marion 25 (Mota 5), Kennedy 38 (Courtney 5). Total fouls - Marion 22, Kennedy 14. Technical foul - Mota. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Marion 20, Kennedy 7.

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