Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand and his City High teammates already knew the Little Hawks were a much different team than the one that went 4-18 last season.

On Friday, Threlkeld-Wiegand and the Little Hawks showed everybody else what they already knew.

Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand led three Little Hawks in double figures with a game-high 18 points in a 63-57 upset of Cedar Falls (2-1) in a MVC Valley Division tilt in Iowa City.

“We know who we are but after this game I feel like everybody else is going to have to know who we are now,” Threlkeld-Wiegand said. “We aren’t the team we were last year we’ve improved a lot. We are a whole new team. The energy on the bench, everything is way different now. I think it just gets it on the map a little bit.”

Keshawn Christian scored 16 points and Antonio Turner had 12 including a go-ahead jumper with 1:37 left that helped City High (1-1) to its biggest win under second-year head coach Derek Roberts.

“It’s rewarding to see the kids’ hard work paying off a little bit,” Roberts said. “It’s a big win, it’s early in the season but we are definitely proud of the guys out there how they played. Cedar Falls is obviously a good team and we have great respect for them and that’s what makes it such a good win.”

City High was even with Pleasant Valley entering the fourth quarter of its season opener last Thursday but was outscored 20-7 in the final quarter of a 62-49 loss.

On Friday it was the Little Hawks that made the plays down the stretch.

City High closed the game with an 8-1 run that started by a pull-up jumper by Turner with 1:37 left that gave the Little Hawks a 57-56 lead it would never give up.

“We felt like we were close the last game but we didn’t finish,” Turner said. “We just had to learn to finish the game and that’s what we did. We had a week off and we practiced hard and just got through it.”

City High limited a Cedar Falls team averaging 80 points per game to a season-low 57 points on 40 percent field goal shooting.

All-state guard AJ Green had 14 points to lead Cedar Falls but the Northern Iowa recruit was just 4-of-19 from the floor and missed all six of his fourth-quarter field goal attempts.

“Great players require a whole team to guard and I thought all five guys helped guard him tonight,” Roberts said. “When shots don’t go in that helps us out a little bit but what a great player.”

While Green was struggling to get going City High couldn’t miss from outside early.

The Little Hawks were 7-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half and trailed 31-30 at the half.

Cedar Falls led 34-32 after Green hit his only 3-pointer of the game less than a minute into the third quarter but City High responded with a 7-0 run that featured five points from Threlkeld-Wiegand.

“We came into this game knowing we could win this, we knew nobody else thought we could win it but we knew we could win it,” Threlkeld-Wiegand said. “We’ve needed a win like this for the last few years but to get it now, early in the season we have new confidence in ourselves. Other teams are going to have to be ready for us now.”

City High took a 55-50 lead when Christian came up with a steal and threw down a powerful two-handed slam with 3:46 left.

However, the sophomore was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim and Green converted two free throws to cut the lead to 55-52.

Jack Campbell scored on a layup on the Tigers’ possession after the free throws and after City High missed four straight free throws on its next two possessions Logan Wolf tipped in a Mason Abbas miss to put Cedar Falls up 55-54 with 1:47 left.

Turner had the answered that turned the momentum back to City High.

The junior point guard drilled a 15-foot pull-up jumper 10 seconds later to put City High back on top.

“I was trying to get something going to the basket but he cut me off and I just pulled back and saw I was open,” Turner said. “I was able to get it and that turned out to be a big shot.”

City High held the Tigers to just one Green free throw over the final 1:37 to secure the win.

“This does a lot, it boosts us up a lot,” Christian said. “We’ve been working hard the last week and tonight we came to play.”

City High       17  13  18  15  –  63

Cedar Falls    13  18  13  13  –  57

<!–[endif]–>City High (63) – Antonio Turner 4-9 2-5 12, Luke Young 0-1 0-1 0, Carter Westlake 2-7 0-0 6, Jeremie Kambomba 1-2 1-4 3, DeAngelo McNeil 4-4 0-0 8, Keshawn Christian 4-6 8-12 16, Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand 6-13 2-6 18, Team 21-42 13-28 63.

Cedar Falls (57) – AJ Green 4-19 5-6 14, Logan Wolf 6-11 0-1 12, Ben Gerdes 2-6 1-2 5, Mason Abbas 1-4 1-2 4, Sam Gary 0-2 0-0 0, Joshua Ollendieck 1-1 0-0 3, Reese Gardner 1-2 1-3 3, Jack Campbell 6-8 2-6 14, Chase Courbat 1-1 0-0 2, Team 22-54 10-20 57.

3-point field goals – ICH 8-15 (Turner 2-4, Young 0-1, Westlake 2-4, Threlkeld-Wiegand 4-6); CF 3-18 (Green 1-9, Wolf 0-1, Gerdes 0-2, Abbas 1-3, Gary 0-2, Ollendieck 1-1). Rebounds – ICH 29 (Threlkeld-Wiegand 6); CF 33 (Green 12). Turnovers – ICH 13; CF 12. Total fouls – ICH 15, CF 23. Fouled out – ICH (Kambomba); CF (Campbell). Technical fouls – ICH (Christian); CF (Gerdes).