Strong second-half defensive effort lifts Linn-Mar to 57-45 win over top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier

MARION - Last week, Linn-Mar’s girls’ basketball team let a late fourth-quarter lead somehow get away and ended up losing to cross-town rival Marion.

Friday night, it was an even bigger late fourth-quarter lead against another good Class 4A opponent for the Lions, but no such collapse. Not even close to one.

Taylor Brunson had 20 points, 15 in the second half, and Linn-Mar clamped down defensively to roll to a 57-45 win over Cedar Rapids Xavier at the Lions gym. Xavier is the top-ranked team in Class 4A, Linn-Mar No. 15 in 5A.

“Our main goal as a team is defense,” Brunson said. “Because you can only have good offense is you play good defense. Our defense, at halftime in the locker room, we all agreed we needed to pick it up. That helped a lot.

“We just kept the energy up. We didn’t let any of our mistakes get us down.”

Linn-Mar (5-1) held Xavier (5-1) to four points in the third quarter to extend a one-point halftime lead to 43-32 going to the fourth. The Saints never got their deficit under double digits from there.

Xavier went 0 for 12 from beyond the 3-point line in the game, which is not optimal for a team needing a comeback.

“We had to adjust a little bit to how we defended their high-ball screen with (Xavier’s Libby) Fandel getting downhill just a little bit too much,” said Linn-Mar Coach Chad Tompkins. “We talked about how we kind of wanted to defend that. It wasn’t perfect, but we did get a little more help there on the backside and take that away. Fandel, she’s so hard (defending) going to the basket. Sometimes you feel like you’re getting her closed down and she still went. Our big emphasis was keeping her dribble penetration out of the middle.”

Fandel finished with 13 points. Center Kyla Mason led Xavier with 15 points.

Zoe Kennedy had 15 points for Linn-Mar, including four 3s. Tompkins noted the importance of freshman Dreya Kern’s nine-point effort off the bench.

Linn-Mar plays Saturday against 5A third-ranked Pleasant Valley.

“That’s what we’ve said. We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves here before Christmas,” Tompkins said.

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AT LINN-MAR

C.R. XAVIER (45): Libby Fandel 5-10 3-6 13, Kyla Mason 7-12 1-3 15, Lexi Turner 1-3 3-4 5, Ella Arnold 2-8 0-0 4, Sydney Huber 3-6 2-2 8, Reese Komenda 0-2 0-0 0, Aaliyah Beier 0-2 0-0 0, Carley Jonker 0-0 0-0 0, Madden Wilson 0-5 0-0 0, Taylor Rexroth 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-48 9-15 45.

LINN-MAR (57): Tessa Casebolt 1-4 4-7 6, Meredith Koenen 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Brunson 6-13 7-8 20, Zoe Kennedy 5-10 1-2 15, Ellie Daubenmier 3-5 1-4 7, Dreya Kern 4-6 0-2 9, Emily Koranda 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Haefner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-40 13-23 57.

Halftime – Linn-Mar 29, Xavier 28. 3-point goals – Xavier 0-12 (Fandel 0-2, Mason 0-1, Turner 0-1, Arnold 0-3, Huber 0-1, Komenda 0-1, Beier 0-1, Wilson 0-2), Linn-Mar 6-14 (Brunson 1-4, Kennedy 4-6, Kern 1-2, Haefner 0-1). Rebounds – Xavier 25 (Mason 7), Linn-Mar 32 (Casebolt 10). Total fouls – Xavier 17, Linn-Mar 15. Fouled out – None. Turnovers – Xavier 15, Linn-Mar 13.

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