C.R. Xavier making strong case late for good postseason seed

CEDAR RAPIDS — Ryan Luehrsmann will brush up on his debating skills this weekend and get ready to present the best case possible for his Cedar Rapids Xavier boys' basketball team.

If you weren't aware, coaches seed the entire postseason this year. That's every district, every substate, even the state tournament.

The eight coaches in Class 3A, Substate 4 will convene Wednesday for a meeting to hash out seeds for everyone. The bracket will be determined by the conclusions they come to.

What those conclusions will be in regards to defending state champion Xavier is anyone's guess.

'It's going to be interesting, to say the least,' Luehrsmann said, after his team's 60-56 win Friday night over Cedar Rapids Prairie at Ron Thillen Gymnasium. 'I don't know how it's going to go. When you've got seven other guys in the room who feel differently about it than you do, it's hard to know how it will shake out.'

Even with this nice victory, Xavier still only has a 7-9 record, though it's on a three-game win streak. The Saints have lost six times to Class 4A schools in the Mississippi Valley Conference and once to a ranked team from Nebraska.

They are 2-2 against 3A schools, beating Mount Pleasant (ranked fifth) and Knoxville, and losing to No. 1 Waverly-Shell Rock and Davenport Assumption. The other seven teams in Substate 4 are Assumption, DeWitt Central, Maquoketa, Mount Vernon, Solon, Dubuque Wahlert and West Liberty.

A return trip to state certainly isn't out of the question, regardless of the Saints' seed.

'What I told the kids is all we can do is do as well as we can, peak at the right time,' Luehrsmann said. 'Whoever we play, we've just got to throw it up and go play them. That's the beauty of playing in the Valley. It gets you ready for that.'

Prairie (11-6) led at halftime by a point, 27-26, but Xavier spurted to a seven-point edge midway through the third quarter and never trailed after that. Wing Jackson Joens was money, hitting all 11 of his shots: 4-for-4 from 3-point range and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.

The only time he seemed to hit the rim was on his seventh and final free throw, and that was the inside of the rim. Everything else was a swish.

'Huge confidence booster this week,' said Joens. 'Everyone just kind of blew us off because we had an awful record. We weren't playing good basketball ... We weren't having fun. This week has got us back.'

Xavier beat a good Cedar Falls team on Tuesday night.

'We've been close all year,' Luehrsmann said. 'Now we're starting to click and put everything together. This week was huge. Just to get some rewards, get a couple of wins. It hasn't really changed our approach. We're doing the same things. I think the guys have started to figure it out at the right time.'

Xavier was 22 of 25 from the free-throw line to Prairie's 3 of 4, a telltale statistic. The Saints are much more of an interior threat than the Hawks, but that's still a big difference.

Max Smith Drahos led Prairie with 15 points, with Jake Eilers adding 12. Prairie won the first meeting between the teams, 70-66, at Prairie last month.

'They picked up their defense really good from the first half,' Eilers said. 'We didn't get as many open looks. When we did, the shots weren't falling.'

AT C.R. XAVIER

C.R. PRAIRIE (56): Jake Eilers 4-7 0-0 12, Max Smith Drahos 7-9 0-0 15, Griff Clark 5-10 0-1 11, Kris Murray 2-10 2-2 7, Keegan Murray 2-7 0-0 6, Logan Serbousek 1-1 0-0 2, Matt Lorenz 0-0 0-0 0, Darren Kilpatrick 0-0 0-0 0, Levi Usher 1-1 1-1 3. Totals 22-45 3-4 56.

C.R. XAVIER (60): Nolan Butkowski 2-9 4-4 9, Max Techau 3-8 2-2 8, Jackson Joens 4-4 7-7 19, Quinn Schulte 0-1 7-8 7, Matt Mims 6-12 2-4 15, Bryce Schulte 1-1 0-0 2, Gabe Lux 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 16-38 22-25 60.

Halftime — Prairie 27, Xavier 26. 3-point goals — Prairie 9-24 (Eilers 4-7, Smith Drahos 1-3, Clark 1-3, Kr. Murray 1-6, Ke. Murray 2-5), Xavier 6-10 (Butkowski 1-5, Joens 4-4, Mims 1-1). Rebounds — Prairie 20 (Clark 9), Xavier 31 (Q. Schulte 6). Total fouls — Prairie 16, Xavier 10. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Prairie 11, Xavier 14.

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