City High senior Jared Taylor

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – It took longer than he preferred and it got a little closer than he would have liked but Derek Roberts picked up his first win at City High on Saturday.

City High jumped to an 13-3 lead and held off Burlington 57-42 in a non-conference contest on Saturday, snapping a six-game losing skid to open the season and giving Roberts his first win leading the Little Hawks.

“It feels good,” Roberts said. “This is a continuous process, I think we still have some things to learn but overall I like the guys’ energy and their positive demeanor with each other tonight.”

City High held Burlington (0-6) scoreless for more than five minutes to open the game while building an 8-0 lead and held off a second-half surge by the Grayhounds to improve to 1-6 on the season.

Antonio Turner had eight of his game-high 20 points in the final 65 seconds of the first half as City High took a 36-13 halftime lead.

Senior Jared Taylor added eight points and seven rebounds for City High which rebounded from losses to ranked teams West High and Dubuque Senior this week.

“It was really important that we got this win tonight,” Taylor said. “It’s definitely something for us to build off of and hopefully we can get that next win on Tuesday and go into the break 2-0.”

In a matchup of winless teams City High came out energy on Saturday.

City High scored the first eight points of the game and led 13-3 after one quarter.

The Little Hawks didn’t allow a Burlington basket until Ryle Koenig hit a 3-pointer with 2:33 left in the opening quarter and forced eight of the Grayhounds’ 20 turnovers in the first quarter.

“I talked to the seniors this morning and I said this is your season and we are going to put it in your hands to get us started and show everyone the right way to play,” Roberts said. “They started us off on the right note and everyone else just took a que from their role.”

City High led 26-13 late in the second quarter before ending the half with 10 unanswered points.

Turner scored the final eight points of the half as City High took a 23-point halftime lead.

“I was just staying aggressive,” Turner said. “My teammates were looking for me and I was just trying to play with energy.”

Turner started his own personal 8-0 run with a conventional 3-point play with 1:05 left in the half.

He followed with back-to-back transition layups and steals that pushed the lead to 35-13.

“Coach told us to get up and get into them and just pressure them and be aggressive from the start,” Turner said. “We were able to do that.”

Turner capped the first half scoring by hitting one of two free throws after Burlington was assessed a technical foul after the half ended.

Burlington made a late charge, cutting the lead to 46-38 on a 3-point play by Daxton Washington-Smothers with 3:53 left.

Freshman Keshawn Christian answered with four straight points for City High and Burlignton never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

“Any time we can build a little confidence with our team its huge,” Roberts said. “This is huge for us to get our confidence in the right way as our schedule opens up a little bit more and we have some winnable games coming up.”

Christian and Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand each had six points for City High as nine different Little Hawks scored.

City High shot 37 percent but outscored Burlington by 11 at the free throw line hitting 17-of-26 free throws.

“Coach has been telling us we have one of the toughest schedules in the state and we aren’t using that as an excuse but it was definitely really good to get this win and get coach a win here,” Taylor said.

City High   13 23  8 13 – 57
Burlington  3 10 16 13 – 42

Burlington (42) – Jonathan Davis 0-1 0-0 0, Mason Leinbach 7-14 3-4 20, Austin Brown 1-6 2-2 4, Cedric Peterson 1-3 0-0 2, Dadrian Hoambrecker 1-6 0-3 3, Ryle Koenig 3-9 0-0 8, James Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Daxton Washington-Smothers 1-3 3-3 5, Team 14-43 8-12 42.

City High (57) – Antonio Turner 7-14 5-8 20, Keyshawn Trice 1-3 0-2 2, Jaycorde Hickman 0-1 0-0 0, Kolbie Clayton 0-1 2-2 2, Cole Cotton 2-8 0-0 5, Keshawn Christian 1-6 4-4 6, Ry Threkeld-Wiegand 2-2 2-2 6, Vance Dillon 1-5 2-5 4, Louis Craig 2-3 0-1 4, JP Rethwisch 0-1 0-0 0, Jared Taylor 3-7 2-2 8, Team 19-51 17-26 57.

3-point field goals – ICH 2-14 (Turner 1-4, Hickman 0-1, Cotton 1-5, Dillon 0-1, Craig 0-1, Rethwisch 0-1, Taylor 0-1) BUR 6-20 (Davis 0-1, Leinbach 3-8, Brown 0-1, Hoambrecker 1-3, Koenig 2-6, Washington-Smothers 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 38 (Christian 9) BUR 31 (Koenig 6). Turnovers – ICH 13, BUR 20. Total fouls – ICH 19, BUR 22. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – ICH (Threlkeld-Wiegand), Burlington (Bench).