Xavier knocks off Linn-Mar girls, 42-37

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kylie Brown could barely get any words out.

The Cedar Rapids Xavier senior forward was flustered when approached by a pair of reporters Friday night for comment about her team's big 42-37 upset of Class 5A 11th-ranked Linn-Mar.

'I'm such a bad person to talk to,' she said, sheepishly. 'I'm so bad at this. I'm sorry.'

In between apologies and cupping her hands around her mouth while being unable to successfully search for answers, Brown was asked what was going on in Xavier's neighboring locker room. It sounded like chaos.

'A party,' she smiled.

That's all she needed to say.

'It feels really good, coming off the losses we've had to good teams,' Brown said. 'It feels good to actually win.'

Though there were a number of ties, and it was always close, Xavier (3-3) never trailed in coming up with an early season signature victory. The Saints' three losses were by single digits to other ranked 5A teams, so the pre-Christmas schedule has been brutal.

Xavier punched back at that schedule here.

'I think what it's done is show our team what's out there,' Xavier Coach Tom Lilly said. 'Sometimes losing and making mistakes don't become mistakes unless you don't learn from them. Hopefully we'll learn from them. We're still pretty young. Not necessarily that we're all freshmen and sophomores, but experience wise, we have Lexi (Noonan) and Amelia (Ivester) coming back who have varsity starting experience. Everybody else on the floor is trying to figure out their roles for the first time.'

Brown led Xavier with 13 points, 11 in the first half. Noonan added 12 and freshman point guard Caitlynn Daniels nine, most of those coming down the stretch in crunch time.

Xavier overcame an eight-minute first-half scoreless drought, getting its only second-quarter points on an Ivester jumper inside five seconds. That tied things at the break, 17-17.

Linn-Mar (4-2) had scoring issues of its own, though, suffering through a six-minute scoring drought in the second half. Back-to-back Daniels drives gave Xavier a 36-31 lead with 2:25 left, and it was a four-point game with a minute left.

A pair of missed one-and-ones gave Linn-Mar a final chance to tie. The Lions called timeout with 9.8 seconds to go and the ball in the frontcourt, but Xavier defended well and a forced 3-point attempt by Ellie Anderson banked away no good.

Two Stanek free throws with 0.4 left secured it. Anderson had 12 points to lead Linn-Mar, with Carly Spies adding 11.

Wing Kamryn Finley came in averaging 17.8 points per game but was limited to six, on 2-of-13 shooting from the field.

'We put Lexi on her to start with,' Lilly said. 'Lexi's got some length and can keep you from your post-up game. Then we switched (to) Kiana (Stanek) because you wear out, you get tired defending kids of that caliber ... Those two particularly. We continue to look for someone who wants to become a defensive stopper, just like you look for kids who want to become a go-to scorer.'

AT LINN-MAR

C.R. XAVIER (42): Kylie Brown 6-11 1-1 13, Lexi Noonan 5-12 2-3 12, Amelia Ivester 1-4 2-2 4, Kiana Stanek 0-6 4-5 4, Caitlynn Daniels 4-9 0-1 9, Emily Jasper 0-1 0-0 0, Maria Steffen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-43 9-12 42.

LINN-MAR (37): Lexi Frese 1-3 0-0 2, Kamryn Finley 2-13 1-2 6, Carly Spies 4-7 3-4 11, Megan Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Ally Johnson 1-3 3-4 6, Ellie Anderson 4-13 0-0 12, Megan Renner 0-1 0-0 0, Carly Printy 0-1 0-0 0, Macey Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 11-42 7-10 37.

Halftime — Xavier 17, Linn-Mar 17. 3-point goals — Xavier 1-11 (Brown 0-1, Daniels 1-4, Stanek 0-6), Linn-Mar 6-21 (Frese 0-2, Finley 1-6, Johnson 1-3, Anderson 4-9, Miller 0-1). Rebounds — Xavier 35 (Brown 10), Linn-Mar 24 (Spies 9). Total fouls — Xavier 9, Linn-Mar 14. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Xavier 5, Linn-Mar 4.

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