C.R. Jefferson with big 4th quarter to topple Waterloo West, 78-70

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kyler Bell is 2016-17 Cedar Rapids Jefferson boys' basketball.

At 5-foot-11, he's obviously not very big. He doesn't wow you with super athleticism or anything like that.

He played quite a bit on the interior Friday night against Waterloo West, of all things. Yet he was super effective, posting a double-double.

Just get it done. The J-Hawks in a nutshell.

'He plays so hard,' Jeff Coach Brandon Horman said, after a come-from-behind 78-70 win over Waterloo West in J-Hawk land.

All of Horman's guys play hard. The coach said he kept looking for signals from players to get a second-half rest, but he got none.

He rolled with his five starters, and they produced a 31-point fourth quarter. Jefferson (7-3) trailed from early in the first quarter through the third, but a Willie Guy jumper put them ahead, 51-49, less than a minute in, and the J-Hawks went from there.

This was a significant response from a double-overtime upset loss to Cedar Rapids Washington a week ago.

'It was a huge win for us,' Horman said. 'Coming out of break, we were 6-2 and feeling pretty good about ourselves. We lose last week, and if we lose tonight, we're 6-4. Just for our confidence, we saw what we were able to do, and now we can get back to ourselves. Being ourselves in practice. It's been a long stretch. We've had one game in about 30 days. So this was big for us going forward. That was a high quality opponent ... For our guys to battle with them, that was huge.'

Kane Kramer led Jefferson with 21 points. That included five 3-pointers, a pair back to back early in the fourth-quarter run.

Royshawn Webb added 18 points and Guy 16. Bell finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

'It was a good bounceback win,' Bell said.

'I feel like getting defensive stops and then getting out in transition really helped us there,' Webb said. 'When we're able to get transition points off our defense, I feel like that's when we're at our best.'

Jefferson's tallest starter is Kramer at 6-3, but he's a perimeter player. The J-Hawks regularly play a 1-3-1 zone defense, with Bell at the top and Webb at the bottom.

'Before the game, Coach told me I had to be aggressive,' Bell said. 'Coming from the top spot of our 1-3-1, I had to attack the defensive rebounds, so that's just what I did tonight.'

Cardonis Harris-Anderson led West (4-3) with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Guard Carlton Todd also had 21 points.

Despite a pretty significant size advantage, half of the Wahawks' shots from the field (29 of 58) came from 3-point territory. They were 11 of 29 from distance, 17 of 29 from inside the arc.

'If I could pinpoint one thing, I'd say courage,' Horman said, when asked what the difference was in the fourth quarter. 'The guys are fearless, they play with confidence, they were relentless getting rebounds. They played the way they are able to play. They made big plays at big times, and that's something we've been challenging our guys to be able to do to be the type of team we have expectations of being.'

AT C.R. JEFFERSON

WATERLOO WEST (70): Carondis Harris-Anderson 10-19 0-4 21, Jaden Keller 1-4 0-0 2, Devon Moore 1-4 0-0 2, Carlton Todd 7-11 3-6 21, Nicholas Pepin 6-10 0-0 17, Tyreek Green 2-6 0-0 5, Isaiah Johnson 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 28-58 3-10 70.

C.R. JEFFERSON (78): Kane Kramer 7-13 2-2 21, T.J. Kuennen 1-2 2-2 4, Kyler Bell 6-14 5-5 17, Royshawn Webb 9-16 0-0 18, Willie Guy 5-11 3-4 16, Curtis Shaw 1-3 0-0 2, Raezjuan Shockley 0-2 0-0 0, Dakota Hulsing 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-62 12-13 78.

Halftime — West 32, Jefferson 28. 3-point goals — West 11-29 (Harris-Anderson 1-6, Keller 0-2, Moore 0-3, Todd 4-6, Pepin 5-8, Green 1-2, Johnson 0-2), Jefferson 8-18 (Kramer 5-9, Bell 0-1, Guy 3-8). Rebounds — West 32 (Harris-Anderson 11), Jefferson 34 (Bell 12). Total fouls — West 12, Jefferson 11. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — West 18, Jefferson 9.

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