Slim Shady and the rest of the Kennedy Cougars take care of Dubuque Senior

CEDAR RAPIDS — He said he didn’t hear them. That’s a good thing for any basketball player, any athlete.

You don’t want to have rabbit ears when the opposing team’s student section starts razzing you. You want and need to focus on the game, the task at hand.

And, truthfully, the stuff yelled Tuesday night at Trey McKowen really wasn’t that bad.

“Hey, Slim Shady!” someone shouted.

“Nice shot, Slim Shady!” someone else yelled.

Slim Shady is rapper Eminem’s alter ego, and while McKowen doesn’t have an array of tattoos or anything, he has short-cropped blond hair that resembles him. Thus the taunts.

“I like rap,” McKowen said, after his game-high 17 points led top-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy to a 57-34 win over No. 3 Dubuque Senior at the Cougars den. “I’ve definitely heard of Eminem, but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan.”

Kennedy’s Slim Shady hit three 3-pointers and scored 10 second-half points as the Cougars (10-0) responded after Senior (9-1) whittled a 15-point halftime deficit to seven in the third quarter. The junior leads a balanced Kennedy offensive attack at 14.8 points per game in his first season as a starting guard.

He was a key bench piece last season.

“I would say it’s just been work,” McKowen said. “Putting time in on the floor. Just becoming a more well-rounded player, overall a better player.”

“Not being so emotional on makes and misses. You have to have balance,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen, Trey’s father. “The other night against Linn-Mar, he was creating shots for others when he was struggling shooting. He missed a couple of shots tonight, but he didn’t stop taking them. We had a game earlier this year where he missed a couple and shut down. He’s a really good shooter, puts in a lot of time. Over the course of a game and over the course of a month, things are going to work out. You’ve got to trust that.”

You’ve got to trust Kennedy’s defense, too. The Cougars picked up Senior full court with its man defense, trapping once a Rams ballhandler crossed midcourt.

That helped create 20 turnovers. Kennedy also handled Senior’s large front line pretty well, too, limiting 6-foot-6 leading scorer Jacob Williams to just six points, 14 under his average.

Senior also only went 3-for-12 from the free-throw line. Its length and physicality (checking in at 6-6, 6-6 and 6-4 up front) did affect Kennedy on offense, which caused a three-minute scoring drought for the Cougars at the end of the second quarter and another significant lull that lasted throughout much of the third.

But Kennedy found a way to eventually grab solid control again and pull away at the end. Micah Schlaak added 14 points for the Cougars.

Neither team shot it well: both at 42 percent from the field.

“I thought we went into a couple of offensive funks where the flow just wasn’t there,” Coach McKowen said. “We weren’t playing off each other well. But part of that was Senior was back and they were loaded up. We couldn’t get to the rim, and our post entries were a little off and getting tipped. Then we were relying on just shooting the ball. We went cold shooting, which led to some droughts.”

Cedar Rapids Kennedy 57, Dubuque Senior 34

AT CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY

DUBUQUE SENIOR (34): Jalen Johnson 0-4 0-4 0, Tevin Schultz 5-7 1-3 11, Jacob Williams 3-5 0-2 6, Nick Kennedy 0-2 0-0 0, Cooper Porter 4-5 0-0 12, Josh Brauer 0-2 0-0 0, T.J. Lynn 0-0 2-2 2, Drake Medinger 1-6 0-2 3, Ben Potts 0-0 0-0 0, Mahdi Al Atabi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-31 3-13 34.

C.R. KENNEDY (57): Cyrus Courtney 2-4 1-2 6, Trevan Krumrei 3-5 0-0 8, Micah Schlaak 5-8 3-4 14, Joe Bean 1-10 1-2 4, Trey McKowen 6-15 2-2 17, Griffin Gerdes 2-5 0-0 6, Landon Deiters 1-1 0-0 2, Reuben Schlaak 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-48 7-10 57.

Halftime - Kennedy 31, Senior 16. 3-point goals - Senior 5-11 (Kennedy 0-1, Porter 4-5, Brauer 0-1, Medinger 1-4), Kennedy 10-26 (Courtney 1-1, Krumrei 2-3, M. Schlaak 1-3, Bean 1-6, McKowen 3-9, Gerdes 2-4). Rebounds - Senior 28 (Williams 9), Kennedy 25 (McKowen, M. Schlaak 5). Total fouls - Senior 16, Kennedy 15. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Senior 20, Kennedy 7.

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