Late Run Dooms City High in Loss to Dubuque Wahlert
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Every season comes with highs and lows.
Four games into the season City High has already hit both but what matters most for the Little Hawks is what comes next.
The high for the Little Hawks came in the form of two-game winning streak to open the season.
Class 3A eighth-ranked Dubuque Wahlert (3-1) provided the low on Tuesday using a 14-0 four-quarter run to rally for a 56-48 win over the Little Hawks in Iowa City.
“This is going to be gut check point for us in the season,” City High senior guard Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand said. “We had our high and we hit a low tonight and it’s up to us to come back.”
City High (2-2) has plenty of opportunities remaining to turn their current low into a high.
The first opportunity to bounce back comes on Friday against cross-town rival Liberty High.
“We have a lot of seniors and these guys are young men that will keep trusting the process and I think they will respond to it,” City High coach Derek Roberts said. “We challenged them a little after the game so we will see on Friday.”
City High had its share of ups and downs on Tuesday.
The Little Hawks erased a 33-29 halftime deficit with a 12-2 run to open the second half.
Antonio Turner had five points and Liam McComas four during the 12-2 spurt that spanned more than seven minutes and put City High up 41-35.
“Good defense is going to lead to offense so we were making sure we were rebounding and running the floor,” Wiegand said. “That lead to some fast break opportunities.”
City High limited Wahlert to just one field goal in the opening seven minutes of the third quarter, holding the Golden Eagles scoreless for more than four minutes during that stretch while scoring nine unanswered points.
“We just got after them,” Roberts said. “We challenged our guys at halftime and we allowed two points in the first seven minutes of the quarter and that allowed us to go on a little run.”
Wahlert junior point guard Cael Schmitt closed the quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 41.
Schmitt entered the game averaging 9.7 points per game but finished with a game-high 19.
“We held them to 40 percent and you hope that you can rely on that but credit their guards, (Schmitt) had a good game for them,” Roberts said. “He scored well above his average and shot the ball pretty.”
City High started the fourth quarter on another high.
Back-to-back buckets by Threlkeld-Wiegand put City High up 45-41 with 6:19 to play.
“I thought the momentum was swinging and I thought we had it,” Threlkeld-Wiegand said. “That’s just how it falls sometimes.
The rest of the game was all Wahlert.
A conventional three-point play by Jacob Schockemoehl started a 14-0 run that spanned more than five minutes and put Wahlert up 55-45.
City High had six of its 16 turnovers in the fourth quarter including five during the 14-0 spurt.
“We had five turnovers or something like that and kind of got away from what we were trying to do,” Roberts said. “We turned it over and then we didn’t get stops on the other end so it’s a double whammy.”
Threlkeld-Wiegand led City High with 13 points while Turner added 10 for the Little Hawks.
City High shot 40 percent from the field but was just 3-of-7 in the fourth quarter.
“We have a lot of positives going on its just a few little things that keep coming up that are causing the game to turn out like they are,” Threlkeld-Wiegand said. “We just have to make a few adjustments.”
City High 17 12 12 7 – 48
Dubuque Wahlert 18 15 8 15 – 56
City High (48) – Antonio Turner 1-4 7-7 10, Luke Young 1-4 0-0 3, Carter Westlake 3-6 0-0 8, Jason Allen 1-1 0-0 2, DeAngelo McNeil 3-5 0-0 6, Jamari Newsom 0-1 0-0 0, Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand 5-12 0-2 13, Liam McComas 2-6 2-2 6, Wyatt Streeby 0-1 0-0 0, Team 16-40 9-11 48
Dubuque Wahlert (56) – Cael Schmitt 6-9 3-4 19, Jacob Schockemoehl 5-12 7-8 18, Matt Becker 1-2 0-0 2, Bryce Osterberger 0-2 0-0 0, Alden Kuntz 0-3 0-0 0, Isaac Ripley 4-10 2-2 11, Joe Kann 0-1 2-2 2, Lucas Topping 2-3 0-0 4, Team 18-42 14-16 56
3-point field goal – ICH 7-19 (Turner 1-3, Young 1-3, Westlake 2-5, Threlkeld-Wiegand 3-7, Streeby 0-1), DW 6-17 (Schmitt 4-6, Schockemoehl 1-5, Osterberger 0-1, Ripley 1-5). Rebounds – ICH 25 (McComas 7), DW 27 (Ripley, Kahn 5). Turnovers – ICH 16, DW 11. Total fouls – ICH 18, DW 12. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.