Waukee Northwest beats C.R. Kennedy again, 71-64, in Class 4A state tourney quarterfinal

DES MOINES - Better than the regular season, but still not quite good enough.

So Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s boys’ basketball season came to an end Monday morning. Waukee Northwest never trailed and beat the Cougars, 71-64, in a Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal at Wells Fargo Arena.

Not even close to the 29-point loss the Cougars suffered at the hands of this same opponent in the regular season. But losses of any kind aren’t really very fun.

“Things went pretty well, but we just didn’t get it done,” said Kennedy’s Reuben Schlaak.

Northwest (22-3) is a tough matchup for anyone because it has guys with size (6-foot-8 Landon Davis and 6-7 Colin Rice, to be specific) and guys who can shoot it. Rice was both guys on this day.

The junior forward had a team-high 26 points, including hitting four of five 3-point attempts.

“I call him our unicorn,” said Northwest Coach Brett Watson. “He can go inside and out. He did a lot of things for us.”

Davis, meanwhile, made all six of his field-goal attempts (half of them were dunks) and added 14 points, as did guard Peyton McCollum. The son of first-year Drake Coach Peyton McCollum also had four treys.

The fourth-ranked/fourth-seeded Wolves get top-seeded/top-ranked Cedar Falls (22-2) in Wednesday night’s semifinals.

“They were kind of getting us both ways,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “Getting us inside and outside.”

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Northwest had the lead for 29 minutes and 10 seconds in this game. It was up six after the first quarter, 11 at halftime and 16 after three quarters. Kennedy (20-5) did not, however, go gently into the day, thanks to Trey McKowen.

The senior all-state guard had 17 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth. There were mid-range jumpers, 3-point jumpers, steals, free throws.

The kid did everything.

“As a senior, it kind of makes you look back on your career. Just how good it was,” he said, fighting through tears. “You just think about the stuff that could have gone differently. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

McKowen was a three-year varsity player, two-year starter and surpassed 1,000 career points this season. The Upper Iowa signee was everything to this team.

Coach McKowen also became emotional when asked what it meant to him to see his son go out the way he did.

“I think it’ll set it later,” he said. “As a coach, you appreciate him as a player, a leader on the floor. As a parent, I appreciate his leadership. How he interacts with adults, teammates and other kids in school. He shows maturity characteristics that it takes to be successful in life.”

He couldn’t complete the though.

Kennedy clawed its way within five, 67-62, on a Sharief Thomas trey with 31.4 seconds left and appeared to have a steal off full-court pressure defense. But the Cougars couldn’t quite come up with a loose ball, a feed went to a wide-open Davis down court, and he tomahawked one home to officially put things away.

“There were probably three or four times where a lot of teams would quit,” Jon McKowen said. “We’d take a timeout, and the way they talked to each other in the huddle was just fantastic. They’d talk about the next possession, what we have to do to get back in the game. Get it under 10, and then we’ll talk about what’s next. Just extremely high character kids. So in tough moments, they don’t waver.”

Kennedy lost in last year’s 4A championship game to West Des Moines Valley but graduated a ton of talent. In all honesty, for this inexperienced team to get back to The Well was an accomplishment.

“Losing five of our top six guys, it’s huge for the program to have guys come in and fill their spots,” said Schlaak. “Sitting back last year and learning from them and then this year being able to take it up and come back here. It was huge.”

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AT WELLS FARGO ARENA

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (54): Pierce McCrary 1-1 0-0 3, Reuben Schlaak 3-4 2-2 10, Landon Deiters 1-3 0-0 3, Jaxon Bean 4-7 1-2 11, Trey McKowen 10-29 8-10 31, Sharief Thomas 2-4 0-0 6, Deacon Kucera 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-48 11-14.

WAUKEE NORTHWEST (71): Colin Rice 10-13 2-2 26, Landon Davis 6-6 2-4 14, Mack Heitland 0-2 0-0 0, Peyton McCollum 5-10 0-0 14, Bode Goodman 4-11 2-2 11, Landon Hanson 0-0 0-0 0, Isaiah Oliver 2-5 0-0 6. Totals 27-47 6-8 71.

Halftime - Northwest 34, Kennedy 23. 3-point goals - Kennedy 11-26 (McKowen 3-13, Bean 2-3, McCrary 1-1, Deiters 1-3, Schlaak 2-3, Thomas 2-3), Northwest 11-26 (Heitland 0-2, McCollum 4-8, Goodman 1-6, Rice 4-5, Oliver 2-5). Rebounds - Kennedy 18 (McCrary, Deiters 4), Northwest 28 (Goodman, Rice 9). Total fouls - Kennedy 11, Northwest 15. Fouled out - None. Assists - Kennedy 8 (McKowen 3), Northwest 19 (Goodman 6). Turnovers - Kennedy 6, Northwest 10.

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