Technical foul fires up Kirkwood

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sometimes a basketball coach gets a technical foul to fire up his team and sometimes they just happen.

Kirkwood men's basketball coach Bryan Petersen had one of the latter that turned into one of the former during last night's game at Johnson Hall.

Petersen was assessed a technical foul with Kirkwood holding a 25-18 lead over Iowa Lakes with 4 1/2 minutes left in the first half. The eighth-ranked Eagles closed the half on a 13-4 tear and breezed past Iowa Lakes, 83-59, in an NJCAA Division II Region XI tournament quarterfinal.

No. 2 seed Kirkwood (24-6) hosts No. 3 seed Southwestern (23-9) in Thursday's semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Kirkwood beat Southwestern twice during the regular season.

The championship is Sunday at the home of the highest remaining seed.

Petersen said he thought he saw an obvious foul that was not called and let it be known to the officials, who banged him with the technical foul.

'Sometimes you do those strategically and sometimes they just come spur of the moment,” Petersen said. 'I think maybe that one was more a spur of the moment deal ...”

But it had a strategic effect.

'I don' think it hurt us too much. I think it kind of got us going,” said sophomore Jordan Ashton, who led the Eagles with 22 points. 'We came out strong after that.”

Iowa Lakes (16-15) never got closer than 12 points in the second half. Kirkwood finished the game on a 16-4 run.

'It was a good team effort,” Petersen said. 'We won and that's all that matters in March.

'We had some guys come off the bench and do some good things. I thought Jacob Olson sparked us in the second half. But for the most part it was survive and advance.”

Ajay Lawton added 12 points for Kirkwood and Joseph Tagarelli had 10 and eight rebounds. Olson, a freshman from Cedar Rapids Jefferson, had four points and three assists.

Rachard Moody led Iowa Lakes with 16 points. Lucas Smith had 15 and Blake Wilder 11.

Kirkwood is bidding for its first regional title since 2011.

'I think we have a chance,” Ashton said. 'Thursday will be a tough one. We just have to do what we do and we'll be fine.”