Linn-Mar erupts from long range

MARION - Jaime Printy Brandt has a template of her vision. She played in it.

And Friday night, her team resembled it.

'Looked like Iowa basketball, didn't it?” Brandt grinned.

Linn-Mar shared the ball (20 assists) and scorched the nets from long distance (a school-record 13 3-pointers in 24 attempts) in a 64-37 rout of Class 5A seventh-rated Iowa City High in a Mississippi Valley Conference girls' basketball game at Linn-Mar High School.

'We shot extremely well, and we hadn't done that lately,” said Brandt, who played at Iowa from 2009 through 2013 and is trying to emulate that style at her high school alma mater. 'Once you see that first one go in, it's a big confidence boost. I was happy to see that tonight.”

The Lions (12-7 overall, 9-2 MVC) won their second straight contest after enduring a six-game skid. That kept them a game behind Iowa City West in the Valley Division with two games left.

'We realized (during the losing streak) that we needed to sacrifice the ‘me' for ‘we,'” said Olivia Montague, who hit three of her four 3-pointers in a third-quarter blitz that transformed the game from a competitive encounter to a mismatch. 'We all sat down and said, ‘What do we want?'

'We want to win.”

The Lions' outside shooting spree broke the old record of 11 treys, set earlier this season. Six different players hit at least one outside shot, with Kamryn Finley joining Montague with four.

Finley scored 16 points, Montague 15, Amanda Ollinger 13. Niki Sharma didn't score a point, but led the assist parade with six, all in the first half.

Ollinger hit a trey and Finley added two more as the Lions took the lead for good at 11-6 in the first quarter. It was 13-11 at the end of the quarter, then 27-19 at halftime.

The Lions were just warming up. They hit seven long-range shots in the third quarter, outscoring the Little Hawks (13-5, 9-2) by a 26-7 margin and opening a 27-point lead. The largest margin was 64-32 with 2 minutes left.

'They beat us in all facets,” said City Coach Bill McTaggart. 'We didn't look like a team tonight. Our shooting was poor. Our defense was poor. Our rebounding was poor. Other than that, we played pretty well.”

City High was 10 of 49 from the floor, 1 of 17 from long range. The Little Hawks slipped into a first-place tie in the Mississippi Division with Cedar Rapids Xavier.

Freshman Ashley Joens led the Little Hawks with 13 points. Older sister Courtney Joens, still slowed by a torn patella tendon, played sparingly.

LINN-MAR 64, IOWA CITY HIGH 37

At Linn-Mar

IOWA CITY HIGH (37): Sarah Plock 3-5 3-3 9, Sara Blowers 1-5 0-1 2, Ashley Joens 3-15 6-8 13, Samantha Blowers 0-2 0-0 0, Kenya Earl 2-11 4-4 8, Courtney Joens 0-2 0-0 0, Sydney Schroder 0-4 2-2 2, Lillian Christopherson 0-0 0-0 0, Rose Gamamou 0-1 0-0 0, Ronetta Jenkins 1-3 1-1 3, Sarah Overton 0-0 0-0 0, Jessica Onnen 0-0 0-0 0, Lauren Caris 0-1 0-0 0. Venia Xayasene 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-49 16-19 37.

LINN-MAR (64): Brittney Lancial 1-3 0-0 2, Olivia Montague 5-8 1-1 15, Niki Sharma 0-3 0-0 0, Kamryn Finley 5-8 2-2 16, Amanda Ollinger 5-10 2-2 13, Lexi Frese 1-2 0-0 2, Megan Murphy 2-4 0-0 6, Claire Larson 2-4 0-0 6, Lannie Nietert 2-2 0-0 4, Allie Noggle 0-0 0-0 0, Alie Akers 0-0 0-0 0, Natalie Ross 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Fensterman 0-1 0-0 0, Brooke Lorenz 0-0 0-0 0, Nicole Glanz 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Swanson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-46 5-5 64.

Halftime: Linn-Mar 27, City High 19. 3-point goals: City 1-17 (Sara Bowers 0-4, A.Joens 1-4, Sam Blowers 0-2, Earl 0-4, C.Joens 0-2, Jenkins 0-1), Linn-Mar 13-24 (Lancial 0-1, Montague 4-6, Sharma 0-1, Finley 4-7, Ollinger 1-2, Murphy 2-4, Larson 2-3). Team fouls: City 12, Linn-Mar 16. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: City 28 (A.Joens 9), Linn-Mar 36 (Finley 7). Assists: City 4 (A.Joens 2), Linn-Mar 20 (Sharma 6). Steals: City 7 (Earl, Schroder 2), Linn-Mar 4 (four with 1). Turnovers: City 10, Linn-Mar 11.

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com