Strong start, stronger finish for Jefferson in blowout of Prairie

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Jefferson J-Hawks haven't won big this boys' basketball season. But when they have won, they've won big.Look at Tuesday night. They limited Cedar Rapids Prairie to one first-quarter field goal, built a lead, kept extending it and rolled, 63-39.Jefferson (6-14) has just six wins, but five have been by at least 19 points. When things come together for this group, they really come together."I see that, too," said associate head coach Brandon Horman. "What I think it comes down to is when we are able to establish a lead, and we're able to play our game and not try to react and play someone else's game, we're able to find more success. What has been key for us is we've had some halftime leads, but how we have come out after half has what has kind of determined the outcome."That was no problem here. The J-Hawks led by 13 after a quarter, by 12 at halftime, then poured it on in the second half."We did well on both ends," said guard Jacob Olson. "We had a lot of energy coming out. Usually we come out with energy in the first half, but we struggle to keep it in the second half. Tonight, we kept it going. We had good defense, rebounded better."Infinitely better than in their previous game against Cedar Rapids Washington. It helped that Prairie (5-15) couldn't make shots (22 percent from the field), but Jefferson rebounded all those misses.Or at least most of them, judging by a whopping 40-18 board edge."Yesterday in practice, we really emphasized the need to rebound," Horman said. "Friday night at Washington, we got outrebounded, 36-11. We gave up more rebounds than we did points, we had more turnovers than we did rebounds. Not a solid effort. But we got to refocus yesterday. The first quarter tonight, we really controlled the boards."Olson is the Mississippi Valley Conference's leading scorer, and he had another Olson-like offensive game with 24 points. But contributions from every guy who saw significant playing time was a bigger key to this blowout win.Another blowout win."It's been frustrating this season," Olson said. "We thought we would do better, but I guess we haven't. We don't work as hard as we should, I guess."Michael Mims led Prairie with 14 points. The teams conclude their respective regular seasons Thursday, then have Class 4A substate openers Monday night: Jefferson at Pleasant Valley and Prairie at home against Marshalltown.Here is the game boxscore:

AT C.R. PRAIRIE

C.R. JEFFERSON (63): Jacob Van Oort 2-3 2-3 6, Tyler Konigsmark 3-6 2-2 8, Brandon Wiederin 3-3 2-2 8, Bryce Cardis 3-5 0-2 6, Jacob Olson 9-18 6-9 24, Lucas Larson 2-5 2-2 7, Adam Van Oort 1-1 1-2 3, Marcus Colbert 0-0 1-2 1, Davis Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Hansen 0-0 0-0 0, Curtis Waltmann 0-1 0-0 0, William Galvin 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Richard Wise 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-43 16-24 63.

C.R. PRAIRIE (39): Mitchell Lorenz 2-3 0-0 6, Jomaryon Simpson 1-6 2-2 4, Jalen Rima 0-1 1-2 1, Cal Clark 1-1 2-2 4, Michael Mims 4-16 3-4 14, Coen Brown 0-5 1-2 1, Bryce Meeker 0-3 0-0 0, Austin Fisher 1-7 0-0 2, Austin Schrader 1-4 2-2 5, Drew Yanecek 0-1 0-0 0, Brody Alberts 0-0 0-0 0, Zachary Moyer 0-0 0-0 0, Marquan Wilder 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 11-50 11-14 39.

Halftime - Jefferson 34, Prairie 22.

3-point goals - Jefferson 1-6 (Konigsmark 0-1, Olson 0-1, Larson 1-3, Waltmann 0-1), Prairie 6-22 (Lorenz 2-3, Simpson 0-1, Mims 3-8, Brown 0-5, Meeker 0-1, Fisher 0-3, Schrader 1-1).

Rebounds - Jefferson 40 (Konigsmark, Larson 7), Prairie 18 (Lorenz, Simpson, Rima 3).

Total fouls - Jefferson 15, Prairie 23.

Fouled out - J. Van Oort, Meeker, Simpson.

Technical fouls - Prairie Coach Moses.

Turnovers - Jefferson 16, Prairie 10.