Tevin Schultz breaks Dubuque Senior’s career scoring record in his team’s 59-36 win at Cedar Rapids Xavier

CEDAR RAPIDS - There was a cookie cake. There were photos.

A ton of photos with family, friends, teammates, coaches, classmates. There was a commemorative banner, and an acknowledgment over the public-address system.

This was a full-bore, on-court postgame party. On the other team’s floor.

A couple supporters of Dubuque Senior’s boys basketball program apologized for that, but there were no worries, no hard feelings on Cedar Rapids Xavier’s end. You celebrate significant milestones when they become significant milestones, even if it’s an opposing player in your own gym.

The fact that Tevin Schultz is by all accounts a great kid as well as basketball player makes it that much more tolerable.

“He’s such a wonderful kid on the court when you play against him, and that’s what I appreciate,” said Cedar Rapids Xavier head coach Mike Freeman after his Class 3A No. 7 Saints were beaten by 4A No. 5 Senior at Ron Thillen Gymnasium, 59-36. “He just competes, you know what I mean? So credit to him. He deserves everything he’s getting.”

Schultz, the 6-foot-7 senior forward scored a game-high 26 points to break Senior’s record for career points. It came on a third-quarter 3-pointer, and the Senior bench exploded in glee when it swished through the net.

Schultz is a four-year varsity player, starting all but five games in that span. His 1,361 overall points surpass Josh Weeber (late 2000s/early 2010s) for the school record

An inside player who can drift outside and hit jumpers, Schultz is headed to Rockhurst University in Missouri, a NCAA Division II school in the same conference as Upper Iowa.

“You sit there and go ‘He scores all the points,’” said Senior Coach Wendell Eimers. “But he’s just one of the best young men that I ever, ever have coached. I mean, he’ll be in the locker room picking up garbabe before he walks out. I mean, it’s always a thank you from him, a hug. It’s just he appreciates so much wearing that Senior uniform.”

“I can’t believe I made it this far,” Schultz said. “Four years, crazy. It’s going by so quick. I knew heading into tonight that I had 19 to go. I was motivated that second half for that (bad) first half ... This is a surreal feeling. I had a lot of joy in my heart when I did it, when I hit that 3.”

This was an offensively ugly basketball game in the first half with a halftime score of 15-14 Senior in front. Neither team shot it well, which was a byproduct of both teams just getting down and guarding very hard.

Senior (13-1) continued doing that in the second half and found some things offensively that helped make this more or less a blowout at the end. The Rams made 18 of 28 field-goal attempts in the second half, including 8 for 12 from beyond the arc.

The thing was Senior played most of this game without starting guard Drake Mendinger, who reaggravated an ankle injury first incurred last Friday in a game against rival Dubuque Wahlert. Medinger averages 15.6 points per game.

“They were switching everything, and we had to figure out at halftime what we wanted to do,” Eimers said. “We had a few things that we figured out that would work. But we had to have some guys step up.”

No other Rams player scored in double figures but Barrett Reed made a trio of treys, Wes Rainer and Cooper Porter once each in the second half.

“I thought we defended our absolute butts off in the first half,” Freeman said. “I hate losing, right? But we defended at an elite level, Senior’s defense is always at an elite level. They’re a really good team. The second half, they executed (offensively).”

A.J. Evans (the James Madison signee who went head’s up with Schulte the entire night) led Xavier with 14 points and eight rebounds. Zander Murray added 12 points.

The Saints ended up shooting just 30 percent from the field.

“I’m proud of our fight in the first half,” Freeman said. “But we’ve got to put a full game together. We play really well for stretches, then we have that one little stretch. We’ve got to get better.”

AT RON THILLEN GYMNASIUM

DUBUQUE SENIOR (59): Barrett Reed 3-4 0-0 9, Tevin Schultz 10-17 3-5 26, Drake Medinger 1-1 0-0 3, Wes Rainer 2-3 0-0 5, Cooper Porter 2-6 0-0 5, William Tucker 2-5 0-0 4, Collin McCollaugh 0-1 0-0 0, Colton McCollaugh 0-2 0-0 0, Kael Stickley 0-0 0-0 0, Jeff Oeth 2-2 0-0 4, Quinn Hirsch 1-1 0-0 3, Jackson Sisler 0-0 0-0 0, Kameron Kochneff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-42 3-6 59.

CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER (36): Brady O’Donnell 0-3 0-0 0, A.J. Evans 6-14 2-4 14, Caleb Loffswold 0-1 0-0 0, Lorenzo Pino 1-4 0-0 2, Zander Murray 3-11 4-4 12, Andrew Allen 0-2 0-0 0, Carter Hoffmann 1-2 0-0 2, Sam Leuck 0-1 0-0 0, Mac Driscoll 1-2 0-0 3, Dawson Doyle 1-1 0-0 3, Nolan Wilgenbusch 0-0 0-0 0, Cash Parks 0-1 0-0 0, Zack Borcherding 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-43 6-8 36.

Halftime - Senior 15, Xavier 14. 3-point goals - Senior 10-20 (Reed 0-4, Schultz 3-5, Medinger 1-1, Rainer 1-1, Porter 1-4, Tucker 0-2, Colton McCollaugh 0-2, Hirsch 1-1), Xavier 4-18 (O’Donnell 0-2, Loffswold 0-1, Pino 0-3, Murray 2-6, Allen 0-1, Hoffmann 0-1, Driscoll 1-2, Doyle 1-1, Parks 0-1). Rebounds - Senior 22 (Schultz 5), Xavier 27 (Evans 8). Total fouls - Senior 10, Xavier 8. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Senior 8, Xavier 11.

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