North Scott Seales the deal against Prairie

CEDAR RAPIDS - You got to see one of the best teams in Class 4A Thursday night, not to mention one of its better players. They were really fun to watch.Cortez Seales and the North Scott Lancers are good, a basketball team that shares the ball so well offensively and loves to attack. They impressed the heck out of the opposing coach, that's for sure."They've got potentially three D-I players on that team. Guys who are good shooters. They play within themselves," said Cedar Rapids Prairie's James Moses after a 80-65 loss. "They had good continuity, established balance with a good inside game and good outside game. From a coaching standpoint, that was nice to see."It's early in the season, and Moses decided to let his guys go up and down with a club that loves that kind of pace. What resulted was North Scott (2-0) making 71 percent of its shots from the field in a 51-point first half.Prairie (1-1) tightened it up some in the second half, but the game was never in doubt."They're just helping us out by doing that. We'll take it," said Seales, a 6-foot-5 junior who finished with a game-high 22 points. "I think we're playing at a pretty high level, but we've still got a lot of room to grow. We've got some inexperience, but I think we're moving in the right direction."One of five junior starters, Seales already is a third-year varsity player, an athletic 6-foot-5 lefty who has an offer from Northern Iowa, among others. He agreed to make the odd position switch from point guard to post player this season in order to improve his team's chances and his chances at even more college scholarship offers.Considering his team's gaudy shooting percentage (60 percent) and that all five North Scott starters scored in double figures, you'd have to say the early returns are promising."We've all accepted our roles," Seales said. "Whatever it takes to win.""Cortez is a different person this year. I'm not just saying that to say it," North Scott Coach Shamus Budde said. "He has never played with a motor before ... He has the skill to play at a very high level, but he hasn't always had that motor. He kind of got beat down on the (AAU) circuit this summer, and he has come back a different person because of it. He's got a motor now, a killer instinct."Prairie's success from long range made this one even more entertaining. The Hawks were willing hoisters, making 13 of 23 from distance, with nine guys converting.Mitch Lorenz led Prairie with 14 points, one of four guys in double figures. The Hawks trailed by as many as 28 in the second half, but forced Budde to bring his starters back in with a fourth-quarter rally that cut the lead to as few as 15."The thing we can take out of this game is that we didn't give up," Moses said. "We fought back, took what was about a 30-point deficit and cut it to 15. There is a lot that I'm appreciative of, as far as what our team was able to do."Here is the game boxscore:

AT C.R. PRAIRIE

NORTH SCOTT (80): Ricky Grimes 5-7 0-1 12, Cortez Seales 9-12 4-6 22, Grant Graham 5-8 5-5 17, Trey Kilburg 5-6 0-0 12, Marlon Stewart 5-11 2-2 14, Tanner Greve 1-2 1-2 3, Matt Sacia 0-1 0-0 0, Adam Albers 0-1 0-0 0, Deeago Reichenberg 0-0 0-0 0, Adam Sibert 0-1 0-0 0, Miles Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle O'Neill 0-0 0-0 0, Nolan Slowick 0-1 0-0 0, Mason Burrage 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-50 12-16 80.

C.R. PRAIRIE (65): Jalen Rima 4-6 1-2 10, Jomaryon Simpson 4-7 1-3 10, Mitch Lorenz 5-8 1-1 14, Dylan Kuchemann 1-4 0-0 3, Michael Mims 3-10 0-0 7, Austin Fisher 3-4 1-2 10, Bryce Meeker 0-1 0-0 0, Cal Clark 1-1 0-0 3, Coen Brown 2-4 0-0 5, Austin Schrader 0-0 0-0 0, Brody Alberts 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 24-47 4-8 65.

Halftime - North Scott 51, C.R. Prairie 33.

3-point goals - North Scott 8-19: Grimes 2-2, Graham 2-4, Kilburg 2-3, Stewart 2-6, Greve 0-1, Sacia 0-1, Sibert 0-1, Slowick 0-1), C.R. Prairie 13-23 (Rima 1-1, Simpson 1-3, Lorenz 3-4, Kuchemann 1-3, Mims 1-3, Fisher 3-4, Clark 1-1, Brown 1-3, Alberts 1-1).

Rebounds - North Scott 29 (Graham 7), C.R. Prairie 18 (Simpson, Lorenz 3).

Total fouls - North Scott 9, C.R. Prairie 16.

Fouled out - None.

Turnovers - North Scott 9, C.R. Prairie 16.