By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Kiana Barney wasn’t on the court for the final minutes of a 22-point regular season loss to City High.

The Cedar Falls junior was held to a season-low five points before fouling out in the fourth quarter of a 62-40 loss to the Little Hawks on December 9.

Barney wasn’t just in the game late in Wednesday’s state quarterfinal rematch she decided the outcome.

Barney scored the final 10 points for fifth-ranked Cedar Falls as the Tigers rallied for 48-46 win over City High in the quarterfinals of the Class 5A state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“That first game I got in foul trouble early so I was excited to get another chance to play against them,” Barney said. “I just wanted to keep playing, I wasn’t ready for it to be over.”

The 6-foot-1 Barney had 13 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead 3-point play with seven seconds left as Cedar Falls advanced to the state semifinals for the second straight season.

Cedar Falls (22-2) will face top-ranked Indianola in the 5A semifinals on Friday at 1:30 p.m.

The late heroics by Barney overshadowed a 22-point, nine-rebound state tournament debut for City High junior Ashley Joens.

In the regular season win Barney drew a pair of early fouls while trying to defend Joens.

On Wednesday that job belonged to Ally Conrad and Emerson Green who helped limit Joens to four points in the second half.

Free of the foul trouble that plagued her in the first game with City High, Barney hit 10-of-17 field goals on Wednesday and was 7-of-9 from the field in the second half.  

“Guarding Ashley (Joens) is hard, she’s a great player,” Barney said. “Ally (Conrad) did a great job guarding her tonight, I knew I wanted to stay in the game so I couldn’t afford fouling her this time.”

Joens was brilliant in the first half, scoring 18 points to give City High a 30-23 halftime edge. The junior Iowa State commit was 8-of-11 from the field in the first two quarters.

 “We were still up seven and we hadn’t played very well so we figured if we came out in the third quarter and played well that we could ice the game away,” City High coach Bill McTaggart said of the halftime lead. Give Cedar Falls credit they made adjustments and we really struggled in the third quarter.”

Cedar Falls pulled even for the first time since the opening tip at 35-35 on a Barney 3-pointer with 7:14 left in the fourth quarter.

City High responded with a 7-0 run that ended with a Joens’ layup with 4:41 left that gave the Little Hawks a 42-35 lead.

It was all Cedar Falls and Barney from that point.

“We just didn’t play as well as we have been playing,” Ashley Joens said. “In the first half we came out strong but we let up when we could have added on.”

Cynthia Wolf hit her fourth 3-pointer of the season to stop the 7-0 City High run and pull Cedar Falls within 42-38.

Barney followed with a layup and then a 3-poitner that gave the Tigers their first lead of the game with 2:59 left.

“We just couldn’t get out on her,” City High senior Kenya Earl said. “We should have identified her as a shooter and got out on her but we didn’t.”

City High twice took a one-point lead in the final 90 seconds with the final Little Hawk advantage coming at 46-45 on a pair of Aubrey Joens free throws with 58 seconds left.

Barney provided the game-winner when she took a Wolf pass streaking down the middle of the paint and converted a layup while being fouled with seven seconds left.

She hit the ensuing free throw to put Cedar Falls up 48-46.

“We just didn’t get our help over there in time,” Ashley Joens said of the Barney layup. “That’s something maybe we could have communicated on a little more.”

City High had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds but Joens had the ball tipped away and Cedar Falls secured it.

City High had five of its 12 turnovers in the fourth quarter, four coming in the final five minutes and missed four fourth-quarter free throws.

“We were 10-for-17 and they were 4-for-4,” McTaggart said of the free throws. “We just to the line but we have to bury them and we missed some big ones there but there were other plays besides the free throws that we didn’t execute very well.”

Barney and Joens were the only two players to finish in double figures.

Wolf had seven for Cedar Falls while Aubrey Joens had nine points and Earl seven for City High.

“We knew we had to stop Ashley,” Barney said. “They are a good team overall we knew we had to come out on them on outside because they can hit shots and they can play inside so we just had to focus in on our defense.”

City High                  18  12  5  11 – 46

Cedar Falls              11  12  9  16 – 48

Cedar Falls (48) – Reilly Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Calli Johnson 2-8 0-0 5, Ally Conrad 1-4 2-2 4, Kiana Barney 10-17 1-1 24, Cynthia Wolf 3-5 1-1 7, Emerson Green 2-4 1-1 6, Olivia Remmert 0-1 0-0 0, Hailey Paul 1-1 0-0 2, Team 19-41 4-4 48.

City High (46) – Rose Nkumu 3-5 0-0 6, Sydney Schroder 0-4 2-2 2, Ashley Joens 9-15 3-7 22, Aubrey Joens 3-9 3-6 9, Kenya Earl 2-7 2-2 7, Paige Rocca 0-1 0-0 0, Sam Greving 0-1 0-0 0, Team 17-42 10-17 46.

3-point field goals – ICH 2-11 (Schroeder 0-2, Ash. Joens 1-2, Aub. Joens 0-4, Earl 1-3), CF 6-19 (R. Johnson 0-1, C. Johnson 1-7, Conrad 0-1, Barney 3-7, Wolf 1-1, Green 1-1). Rebounds – ICH 22 (Ash. Joens 9), CF 28 (Barney 9). Turnovers – ICH 11, CF 12. Assists – ICH 6 (Nkumu 2, Aub. Joens 2), CF 12 (Conrad 4). Total fouls – ICH 9, CF 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.