Prairie opens girls' basketball season with 41-30 victory over Muscatine

CEDAR RAPIDS — Mallory McDermott and Sidney McCrea can't do it alone. And Tuesday night, they didn't have to.

Sophomore Kamryn Grissel provided a handy third wheel, and Class 5A 10th-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie kicked off its girls' basketball season with a 41-30 victory over Muscatine at Prairie High School.

'Kamryn opens up some things, which is good to see,' McDermott said. 'Her first step is so quick, and she's long.'

McDermott (Western Illinois signee) and McCrea (Northern Illinois) will be called upon to carry the Hawks, who went 18-4 last year and reached the 5A regional finals. And they combined for 28 points Tuesday (McDermott 16, McCrea 12). Grissel chipped in with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and grabbed five rebounds.

'We're going to see a lot of triangle-and-two defenses, so we've got to get some scoring from other places to alleviate that,' Prairie Coach Josh Bentley said.

'(Grissel) is a nice athlete, a slasher. She has a big upside, big potential.'

The Hawks (1-0) didn't trail all game, but it took a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter to gain control at 17-10. It was 20-12 at halftime, and the Hawks led by as many as 15 points in the second half.

'It was a good opener,' Bentley said. 'We have five new players in our rotation, and we're going to go through December and see what we can be.

'(Muscatine) controlled the tempo, and that forced us to guard for long periods of time. I'm happy we were able to make a couple of little runs.'

McDermott said, 'I think we're happy with it for a first game. We played hard.'

McCrea added eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Emma Zillig paced Muscatine (0-1) with seven points. Madi Petersen posted six points and 13 rebounds.

The Hawks held the Muskies to 32.5-percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers.

CEDAR RAPIDS PRAIRIE 41, MUSCATINE 30

At C.R. Prairie

MUSCATINE (30): Zoey Long 3-15 0-0 6, Emma Zillig 3-4 0-0 7, Emily Woepking 2-7 0-0 5, Rylie Moss 1-2 0-0 2, Madi Petersen 3-8 0-2 6, Avarie Eagle 0-1 2-2 2, Grace Bode 1-3 0-0 2, Aricka Ramser 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-40 2-4 30.

C.R. PRAIRIE (41): Emma Keiper 0-0 0-0 0, Kamryn Grissel 5-9 0-0 10, Mallory McDermott 7-16 2-2 16, Hailey Cooper 0-5 1-2 1, Natalie Bennett 0-5 0-0 0, Sidney McCrea 5-9 1-1 12, Jenna Leggat 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 18-49 4-5 41.

Halftime: Prairie 20, Muscatine 12. 3-point goals: Muscatine 2-17 (Long 0-8, Zillig 1-1, Woepking 1-5, Petersen 0-1, Eagle 0-1, Bode 0-1), Prairie 1-10 (Grissel 0-1, McDermott 0-2, Bennett 0-5, McCrea 1-2). Team fouls: Muscatine 7, Prairie 9. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: Muscatine 33 (Petersen 13), Prairie 27 (McCrea 8). Assists: Muscatine 5 (Zillig 2), Prairie 7 (McDermott, McCrea 3). Steals: Muscatine 5 (Woepking 3), Prairie 10 (Cooper 4). Turnovers: Muscatine 19, Prairie 8.

Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com