Nate, err Trey, Hutcheson helps Linn-Mar conquer Xavier, 55-47

MARION — Trey Hutcheson's coach has caught himself calling the Linn-Mar sophomore by the wrong first name on more than one occasion.

'In fact, the other day, I called him Nate three times in a row,' Chris Robertson said. 'Nobody said anything, I just kept saying it. Then I was like, 'Oh, Trey.''

Give Robertson some leeway here. He coached Nate Hutcheson a few years back, watched him go on to play college basketball at Western Michigan.

And Trey Hutcheson has a game that's eerily the same as his cousin's.

'There are a lot of similarities between them,' Robertson said. 'He's going to be a good one. He gets up so quick on rebounds and stuff. Once he starts filling out, he's going to be a force.'

He's already a force, scoring 17 points and also leading his team with eight rebounds in a 55-47 win Friday night over Class 3A fourth-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier. The 6-foot-5 forward has led the Lions in scoring in all three of their games in the very early going.

Not too shabby for a varsity newbie.

'The sky's the limit for him,' said Linn-Mar's Reese Phillips. 'He's going to be something special.'

'It's been fun,' Hutcheson said. 'The guys have been really welcoming. I got moved up to the sophomore team last year, and that was a little tough at the start. I didn't know many of those guys well. But, here, I've really molded with the group.'

And the group has molded pretty well. This is basically an entirely new team from a year ago, but Linn-Mar finds itself 2-1, responding favorably from a 21-point loss Tuesday night at home to Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

One rival punched the Lions hard, and they punched another one just as hard.

'We may be inexperienced, but we have a lot of guys that can play,' said Phillips, one of the very few experienced guys on his team.

Hutcheson scored 12 of his points in the second half, helping his team take an eight-point lead late in the third quarter with a pair of free throws. That spread held steady through most of the fourth.

Xavier is off to a 1-2 start, perhaps finding out how difficult it is to be a defending state champion who has everyone gunning for it.

'It's frustrating right now for the guys,' Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann said. 'It's still early, we're only three games in, but we're just really not doing things we've done in the past. Or that we did when we were successful in the past.'

Luehrsmann mentioned defense first, then talked about a lack of patience offensively. Terrific junior guard Matt Mims led the Saints with 21 points, but Linn-Mar slowed him down after a 12-point start in which he made his first four shots from the field and went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line.

Mims was 3 for 13 after that.

'Mims is a handful,' Robertson said. 'Coming off ball screens, I didn't think we did bad (defensively) the first half. Just let him get to the rim a little bit. We tried to adjust, make him shoot jump shots, and we felt a little better about our chances.'

'It was really the little things,' Hutcheson said. 'Matt Mims, with the ball screens, that really hurt us in the beginning. Then we figured it out. We trapped that, Coach had us trap the first one, and we slowed that down. They like to run a lot, so when they have long possessions, that's more our style of defense.'

Tyler Voves added 10 points for Linn-Mar, which got a little bit from everyone who played. Xavier didn't have a point off of its bench, and Jackson Joens and Max Techau, who combine with Mims for this team's 'Big Three,' were limited to 16 combined, on 6-of-17 shooting.

'Right now, we've got work to do on both ends,' Luehrsmann said. 'We're not very good on either.'

AT LINN-MAR

C.R. XAVIER (47): Jackson Joens 3-7 2-2 10, Bryce Schulte 2-3 1-2 5, Max Techau 3-10 0-4 6, Nolan Butkowski 2-6 0-0 5, Matt Mims 7-17 7-7 21, Quinn Schulte 0-2 0-0 0, Max Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Spencer Dempewolf 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-42 10-15 47.

LINN-MAR (55): Trey Hutcheson 4-11 9-10 17, Nate Annis 3-3 0-0 6, Tyler Voves 4-10 1-2 10, Reese Phillips 2-3 2-2 6, Nolan Ruff 3-6 1-3 7, Brennan McGaffe 0-1 0-0 0, Jack Gertsen 1-1 1-2 3, Cole Martin 1-2 1-2 3, Jacob Robertson 1-2 0-0 3, Dylan Hand 0-1 0-1 0. TOtals 19-40 15-22 55.

Halftime — Linn-Mar 30, Xavier 29. 3-point goals — Xavier 3-14 (Joens 2-6, Butkowski 1-2, Mims 0-5, Q. Schulte 0-1), Linn-Mar 2-13 (Hutcheson 0-3, Voves 1-3, Phillips 0-1, Ruff 0-1, McGaffe 0-1, Martin 0-1, Robertson 1-2, Hand 0-1). Rebounds — Xavier 31 (Techau 9), Linn-Mar 25 (Hutcheson 8). Total fouls — Xavier 18, Linn-Mar 16. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Xavier 13, Linn-Mar 8.

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