Senior Night a special night for Linn-Mar

MARION - He admits he thought about changing it for a minute or two, epecially coming off an unexpected loss. But then his senior starters came to him and reiterated they were going to give up their spots.

Chris Robertson has created a unique tradition at Linn-Mar High School that says a lot about him and his boys' basketball program. The coach puts together a lineup for the final home game of the regular season of senior reserves.

It's a great way to say thank you.

'This is a special group, and they are so close,” Robertson said, after his Class 4A sixth-ranked Lions rushed past Cedar Rapids Prairie, 67-42, Friday night. 'There was really no hesitation. It was the right thing to do. We made some memories.”

Linn-Mar (15-4) started Jason Tichy and little-used Grant Sylvester, Luke Willenborg, Daniel Bundy and Garett Evans. Those five played half the first quarter before being replaced by the five usual starters.

At the end of this deceivingly lopsided game, the coach also was able to work in senior backups Rashad Dixon and Ryan Hand. Hey, all those guys practice hard every day and deserve mention and a little bit of playing time when possible.

'To get 12 seniors in on Senior Night, that's pretty special,” Robertson said.

As was the way the Lions bounced back from an 83-73 loss Tuesday night to Cedar Rapids Xavier. This was a five-point game midway through the third quarter and still just a nine-point Linn-Mar lead headed to the fourth.

But you looked up at the scoreboard a couple minutes later, and the spread was 19 instead of nine. A game-altering run was put together via some forced turnovers and subsequent fast-break points.

'Defense,” said Linn-Mar's Nic Uhlir, who had a team-high 13 points. 'We gave up 83 points to Xavier, and we don't like that. So that was a big focus all week in practice. That's what we were going to come out and do tonight - play defense. I don't know what we held them to, but I know it wasn't 83 or anywhere close to that.”

Prairie (8-12) shot just 35 percent from the field, so Robertson and company had to like the way they defended a team that likes to spread you out and use a plethora of screens to try and get their 3-point shooters open.

'I knew these guys would bounce back,” Robertson said. 'I thought we were pretty locked in tonight. Emotionally we were ready to go, we were going to defend. It was a good bounce back. Maybe that wasn't a bad loss at that tine. We'd been playing pretty well, people had been talking about us a little bit. It's OK to bring them back to earth a little bit.”

Jordan Bohannon added nine points for Linn-Mar and had what must have been a career-high 10 rebounds. He's the team's point guard after all.

Sophomore Max Smith Drahos led Prairie with 12 points.

'I think we're playing the best basketball we have all season,” Uhlir said. 'I'm excited to see how the rest of the year goes.”

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AT LINN-MAR

C.R. PRAIRIE (42): Austin Schrader 1-4 0-0 2, Max Smith Drahos 6-13 0-0 12, Ben Boldt 3-7 1-2 7, Cal Clark 2-8 0-0 6, Austin Fisher 1-4 0-0 3, Bryce Meeker 2-4 0-0 4, Coen Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Mitch Lorenz 3-5 0-0 8, JoJo Simpson 0-4 0-2 0, Ryan Oxley 0-1 0-0 0, Cooper Reittinger 0-0 0-0 0, Ethan Copeland 0-0 0-1 0, Mitchell Nierling 0-0 0-0 0, J.P. Havel-Pisarik 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-51 1-5 42.

LINN-MAR (67): Jason Tichy 0-2 0-0 0, Grant Sylvester 1-2 0-0 2, Daniel Bundy 1-3 1-1 3, Luke Willenborg 0-1 0-0 0, Garett Evans 0-1 0-0 0, Trevor Noble 4-8 0-1 8, Jordan Bohannon 3-5 1-2 9, Ryan Schmidt 3-4 2-2 8, Lane Halupnik 2-6 0-0 5, Nic Uhlir 5-7 1-2 13, Beau Klostermann 3-4 0-0 6, Jordan Brandt 3-5 0-0 8, Riley Murphy 1-2 1-1 3, Rashad Dixon 1-2 0-0 2, Ryan Hand 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Towlerton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-52 6-9 67.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 46, Prairie 37. 3-point goals - Prairie 5-14 (Drahos 0-1, Schrader 0-1, Clark 2-4, Brown 0-1, Lorenz 2-4, Oxley 0-1), Linn-Mar 7-18 (Sylvester 0-1, Bundy 0-1, Evans 0-1, Bohannon 2-4, Halupnik 1-2, Uhlir 2-4, Brandt 2-4, Murphy 0-1). Rebounds - Prairie 29 (Boldt 7), Linn-Mar 33 (Bohannon 10). Total fouls - Prairie 13, Linn-Mar 8. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Prairie 15, Linn-Mar 12.

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