Prairie boys rally in 2nd half to topple Linn-Mar, 62-59

CEDAR RAPIDS — You know what? This is a pretty good basketball team.

'I think the best one we've had here in a long time,' Cedar Rapids Prairie guard Max Smith Drahos said.

And his pretty good basketball team picked up a pretty good win Friday night at home, suddenly sparking to life in the second half and maneuvering from behind and past Linn-Mar, 62-59.

The Hawks (3-3) played Class 4A second-ranked Cedar Falls to a two-point game Tuesday night and appeared to have a hangover from that near miss in the first half here. But something changed after Linn-Mar (3-2) scored the first five points of half number two for a 48-36 lead.

Prairie Coach Jeremy Rickertsen called timeout, and his boys regrouped. They inched back to a five-point game (49-44) at the end of the third quarter and hit a pair of 3-pointers to begin the fourth for their first lead, 49-48.

'It started with defense,' Rickertsen said. 'They scored on their first two possessions there, but after that, we kind of settled down. At halftime, we talked about how we needed to do a better job on defense. Our offense, we've got enough people who can score, so we knew eventually something was going to start clicking there. We took a little bit more pride in our defense, got some stops and Max kind of took over there on offense.'

Smith Drahos scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, back-dooring Linn-Mar to death at times. He also hit a pair of big 3-pointers.

His and-one drive gave Prairie a 56-55 lead with 3:22 left. The Hawks never trailed after that.

'We played pretty well against Cedar Falls, but between that game and this game, we talked a lot about rebounding,' Smith Drahos said. 'We gave up too many offensive rebounds against Cedar Falls, and that was probably the main reason we lost. That was one of the things we tried to focus on tonight. We know our scoring will be there. We trust our offense, but defense and rebounding are the keys to us getting wins.'

Prairie is not a big team by any means but managed to come within two of Linn-Mar in the rebounding department, 25-23. The Lions were within 58-57 with 33 seconds left, but Matt Lorenz finished off a successful home-run inbounds pass with a layup for a three-point lead.

He also hit two clutch free throws in the final minute and finished with a career-high 11 points. Nolan Ruff led Linn-Mar with 20 points.

The Lions' Reese Phillips missed a 3-point attempt from well beyond the line at the buzzer.

'Anytime you get a conference win, it's huge,' Lorenz said. 'We were so close against a good Cedar Falls team, I think that helped us a lot. Hopefully we'll get a few more like this. Just grind it out.'

AT C.R. PRAIRIE

LINN-MAR (59): Trey Hutcheson 4-9 0-2 10, Nate Annis 4-4 0-0 8, Reese Phillips 1-4 0-1 3, Tyler Voves 3-7 0-0 7, Nolan Ruff 7-10 4-4 20, Jack Gertsen 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Robertson 3-4 0-0 8, Cole Martin 0-2 0-0 0, Dylan Hand 0-0 0-0 0, Brennan McGaffe 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-43 4-7 59.

C.R. PRAIRIE (62): Jake Eilers 1-4 0-0 3, Logan Serbousek 2-3 0-0 4, Max Smith Drahos 10-15 1-1 23, Griff Clark 1-11 7-8 9, Keegan Murray 2-4 0-0 5, Kris Murray 0-2 0-0 0, Darren Kilpatrick 0-2 0-0 0, Levi Usher 3-5 1-1 7, Zack Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Lorenz 3-3 4-5 11. Totals 22-49 13-15 62.

Halftime — Linn-Mar 34, Prairie 31. 3-point goals — Linn-Mar 9-16 (Ruff 3-4, Hutcheson 2-4, Phillips 1-3, Voves 1-2, Robertson 2-2, Martin 0-1), Prairie 5-22 (Smith Drahos 2-5, Eilers 1-4, Clark 0-6, Ke. Murray 1-3, Kr. Murray 0-1, Kilpatrick 0-1, Usher 0-1, Lorenz 1-1). Rebounds — Linn-Mar 25 (Hutcheson 9), Prairie 23 (Clark 6). Total fouls — Linn-Mar 14, Prairie 9. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Linn-Mar 11, Prairie 4.

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