Ups and downs for young Prairie girls’ basketball team

CEDAR RAPIDS — When you start two freshmen and a sophomore, and your first girl off the bench is a sophomore, your team is going to have some ups and some downs.

Tuesday night was an ‘up’ for Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Hawks rallied from nine points down in the first half and completely took over in the second for a 58-46 win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson in this west-side battle at the J-Hawks gym.

Prairie has won back-to-back games and returned to the even mark at 5-5, which goes back to that ups-and-downs thing.

“It’s been a delicate balance with how we coach each and every one of them,” said first-year Prairie Coach Kenyon Murray. “When to be hard on them, and when to let them play through mistakes and stuff like that. But I think we saw the last two games before break and this one what we can be.

“That’s really what it’s been. Telling the girls to believe in themselves, we believe in them. And them having them go out and do the things that we’ve been asking them to do.”

Jefferson had an 18-9 edge in the second quarter, only to see Prairie close on a 13-2 run for a 22-20 halftime lead. The J-Hawks led in the third quarter, 28-26, on back-to-back treys by Ava Erger and Aubrey Luvan, but Ava Van Voorst splashed back-to-back 3 to give Prairie the lead back for good.

“We slowed down, first of all,” Coach Murray said. “That was one of the biggest things. We wanted the girls to slow down and be deliberate with our passing and then our dribble-drives ... against their zone.”

Balanced scoring has been Prairie’s modus operandi, and it was here. Nevaeh Diaz-Doolin, the starting sophomore, had 12 points, the only Hawk to score in double figures.

Coming in, Prairie’s leading scorers were Brynlie Hadenfeldt and Emilie Larsen (the starting freshmen) at 8.1 and 8.0 points per game, respectively. The Hawks just get a little something from a lot of girls, 10 of them playing here.

Emma Slings led Jefferson (3-7) with 16 points, with Luvan adding 13.

AT CEDAR RAPIDS JEFFERSON

C.R. PRAIRIE (58): Emily Larsen 1-5 3-4 6, McKenna Murray 2-6 2-3 6, Brynlie Hadenfeldt 2-4 0-0 5, Nevaeh Diaz-Doolin 4-7 4-5 12, DeLanee Seay 2-11 3-5 8, Asia Beale 3-7 0-0 8, Ryann Decker 2-3 1-3 5, Catie Reittinger 1-2 0-0 2, Ava Van Voorst 2-3 0-0 6, Presley Estrada 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 13-20 58.

C.R. JEFFERSON (46): Jariah Harris 1-3 1-1 3, Madison Williams 1-5 3-4 5, Emma Slings 6-15 2-2 16, Madie Denlinger 1-2 0-0 3, Aubrey Luvan 5-11 0-0 13, Ava Erger 2-3 1-2 6, Madison Mercil 0-4 1-2 1, Sophia Kevitt 0-0 0-0 0, Lillian Ulrich 0-1 0-0 0, Camryn Abrams 0-0 0-0 0, Ryiah Nickell 0-0 0-0 0, Danielle Boche 0-0 0-0 0, Morgan Hewitt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-44 8-11 46.

Halftime – Prairie 22, Jefferson 20. 3-point goals – Prairie 7-21 (Larsen 1-4, Murray 0-3, Hadenfeldt 1-2, Diaz-Doolin 0-1, Seay 1-6, Beale 2-2, Reittinger 0-1, Van Voorst 2-3), Jefferson 7-13 (Slings 2-6, Denlinger 1-1, Luvan 3-6, Erger 1-1, Ulrich 0-1). Rebounds – Prairie 32 (Larsen 7), Jefferson 32 (Slings 5). Total fouls – Prairie 13, Jefferson 17. Fouled out – None. Turnovers – Prairie 15, Jefferson 19.

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