7th-ranked Xavier heads to holidays on high point

CEDAR RAPIDS - Channeling his inner-Hawkeye, Ryan Luehrsmann diagrammed a play during halftime Tuesday night that he wanted his Cedar Rapids Xavier boys' basketball team to run on its opening possession of the third quarter.

The former University of Iowa guard went with a lob. No surprise there, right?

Luehrsmann's coaching mentor is Tom Davis, after all, a guy who was known to run a few lob plays in his distinguished career.

'We'd never run it in practice or anything. That was the first time,” Xavier's Ryan Stulken said. 'I was kind of like ‘Are you sure, Coach?' It worked out.”

Stulken took a feed from guard Mitch Burger for an alley-oop dunk, electrifying the Ron Thillen Gymnasium crowd. It was the second jam of the night for the 6-foot-7 senior forward, who drove baseline for an and-one one to begin a 78-52 lancing of Davenport Assumption.

'Ryan has had that in him the last couple of years,” Luehrsmann said. 'We've just been waiting for him to get more confident, more aggressive. It's really neat to see that happen now here in his senior year.”

It's really neat to see how the Class 3A seventh-ranked Saints are coming together. Four starters scored in double figures as Xavier heads to the holiday break with a 5-1 record.

A lot of firepower from a third-place state tournament team of a year ago graduated, but there's still plenty around.

'I'd like to be a little further along, to be honest with you,” Luehrsmann said. 'But the kids are working hard. We've got a long ways to go to accomplish the things we want to accomplish at the end of the year. We're not really concerned with being ranked right now, to be honest with you, during the regular season. We just want to find a way to peak at the right time of the year.”

Xavier rattled off 30 first-quarter points, creating turnovers and converting them into easy points. It wasn't just about transition, though.

Stulken and fellow 6-7er Max Techau are ever improving on the interior. Jackson Joens can shoot it, Matt Mims and Burger can shoot it and distribute it.

Techau and Joens finished with 15 points apiece, with Stulken and Mims adding 12 apiece.

'We were really playing for each other that first quarter,” Stulken said. 'It was a lot of fun. We were running our stuff hard.”

'I thought it would be a process for us, which it is,” Luehrsmann said. 'We haven't done anything, yet. There are pieces here, potential. We've got a couple of playmakers, we've got a couple of big guys, we've got some shooters. Really, how good this team is going to be is going to be determined on the defensive end. How good we can be on that end.”

Assumption dropped to 0-7.

AT C.R. XAVIER

DAVENPORT ASSUMPTION (52): Ray Thrapp 2-7 3-3 7, Cameron Sturtevant 4-12 2-3 13, Luke Fennelly 1-2 1-2 4, Trenton Wallace 2-10 0-0 5, Trent Fitzpatrick 2-3 2-2 6, Liam Robbins 2-4 0-0 4, Thomas Wahl 0-2 0-0 0, Tyler Phillips 1-3 2-2 4, Brock Grenier 2-3 0-0 6, Erik Wadsager 0-1 0-2 0, Andrew Pauli 1-2 0-0 3, Bud Klein 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-49 10-14 52.

C.R. XAVIER (78): Jackson Joens 5-120 3-4 15, Ryan Stulken 5-7 1-1 12, Max Techau 6-10 3-4 15, Mitch Burger 2-9 2-2 6, Matt Mims 4-8 2-2 12, Blake Whitten 0-1 3-4 3, Bryce Schulte 2-2 0-0 4, Max Johnson 0-1 1-2 1, Reese Houtakker 2-4 3-5 9, Michael Fettkether 0-2 1-2 1, Brett Burns 0-1 0-0 0, Spencer Dempewolf 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 19-26 78.

Halftime - Xavier 44, Assumption 23. 3-point goals - Assumption 8-22 (Thrapp 0-1, Sturtevant 3-7, Fennelly 1-2, Wallace 1-5, Fitzpatrick 0-1, Grenier 2-3, Wadsager 0-1, Pauli 1-2), Xavier 7-18 (Joens 2-5, Stulken 1-1, Burger 0-3, Mims 2-3, Houtakker 2-4, Fettkether 0-2). Rebounds - Assumption 22 (Fennelly 6), Xavier 43 (Techau 8). Total fouls - Assumption 18, Xavier 8. Fouled out - Robbins. Turnovers - Assumption 9, Xavier 8.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com