Jeff Johnson

The Iowa Heartlanders are last in the ECHL’s Central Division in large part due to lack of success in close games. Meanwhile, the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are on a heater, winning their last five games and going 7-2-0-1 in their last 10.

Iowa City High and Iowa City West played girls’ and boys’ basketball Sunday afternoon, the first hoops games ever at Xtream Arena. City High’s boys’ one a dramatic affair, while West won the girls’ game comfortably.

The River Valley Conference Shootout went off successfully Saturday at Kirkwood Community College’s Johnson Hall. Fourteen of the league’s 15 teams took part in seven boys’ basketball games.

Class 3A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier kept its record perfect Friday night, when Aidan Yamilkoski hit a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer to give the Saints a 64-62 win at Class 4A 10th-ranked Iowa City West.

Watch or listen to the January 5, 2023, Prep Basketball Podcast as Jeff Johnson and Jeff Linder discuss the latest talking points in Iowa high school basketball.

Brendan and Riley Fitzgerald are part of a true hockey family, their fathers front-office guys for their respective National Hockey League clubs. The first cousins grew up playing together and have been reunited this season as members of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

With a couple of freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup, Cedar Rapids Prairie’s girls’ basketball team has dealt with a lot of ups and a lot of downs so far this season. Tuesday night was an ‘up,’ specifically a 58-46 win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

Cedar Rapids Prairie’s boys’ basketball team went into the holiday break with a 1-5 record, though it easily could have been 4-2, considering losses of one, two and three points. The Hawks found the perfect way not to lose a close game Tuesday night. It didn’t play one, blowing out Cedar Rapids Jefferson, 69-31.

Anthony DeAngelo played for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders as a 14 and 15-year-old in 2010-11. The Philadelphia Flyers defenseman is giving back to the community where his career really began as part of a “Tony D Saves For The Children” promotion.

Former West Delaware prep Wyatt Voelker is redshirting this season as a freshman 197-pounder for the University of Northern Iowa. He already has won three open tournaments this season as an unattached wrestler, and has qualified for the semifinals of the Soldier Salute at Xtream Arena.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders resume the United States Hockey League season Wednesday night at home against the Chicago Steel. The club has been holding its own despite not having its intended lineup available for any games so far this season.

Riders and Youngstown Phantoms meet Feb. 23 at Cleveland’s First Energy Stadium

Monticello’s boys’ basketball team has been to the state tournament three years in a row, making it to the Class 2A semifinals last season. The Panthers uncharacteristically lost two games before the holiday break, but hope a big win this week over ninth-ranked Camanche can springboard it in the new year.

Cedar Rapids Xavier’s boys’ basketball team ran its record to 7-0 with a 55-43 win Tuesday night at Cedar Rapids Washington. The Saints will take a No. 1 ranking into the holiday break, that in Class 3A.

The Iowa Heartlanders have played an ECHL-high 10 games that have gone beyond regulation this season. They’ve only one three, though that third one came in their last game, a Saturday night thriller over Kalamazoo.